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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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https://archive.org/details/makingmeaningofnOOsnow_1 | 


THE MAKING AND MEANING OF THE 
NEW TESTAMENT 


BY 
JAMES H. SNOWDEN 


THE BASAL BELIEFS OF CHRISTIANITY 

THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL SYSTEM 

CAN WE BELIEVE IN IMMORTALITY? 

THE COMING OF THE LORD 

IS THE WORLD GROWING BETTER? 

THE PERSONALITY OF GOD 

A WONDERFUL NIGHT 

A WONDERFUL MORNING 

SCENES AND SAYINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

A SUMMER ACROSS THE SEA 

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 

THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE MINISTRY 

THE CITY OF TWELVE GATES 

JESUS AS JUDGED BY HIS ENEMIES 
IMMORTALITY IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN THOUGHT 
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS, THREE ANNUAL VOLS. 


The Making and Meaning 
of the New Testament 


ITS BACKGROUND, BOOKS AND 
BIOGRAPHIES 


A Porutar INTRODUCTION FOR SCHOOLS, 
CoLLEGES, SUNDAY ScHOOL TEACHERS 
AND GENERAL READERS 


BY 


JAMES H. SNOWDEN 


grew Bork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1924 


All rights reserved 


Coprricut, 1923, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 





Set up and electrotyped. 
Published October, 1923. 
Reprinted October, 1924. 


Printed in the United States of America by 
THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK 


The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
they are life.—Jesus. 


Religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice m 
pitching on this Man as an ideal representative and guide » 
to humanity; nor even now, would it be easy, even for 
an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of 
virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than the en- 
deavor so to live that Christ would approve our life— 
John Stuart Mill. 


Look on our divinest Symbol: Jesus of Nazareth and 
His life and His biography and what followed therefrom. 
Higher has the human thought not yet reached; this is 
Christianity and Christendom, a symbol of quite peren- 
nial, infinite character: whose significance will ever de- 
mand to be anew inquired into and anew made manifest. 
—Carlyle. 


I thoroughly believe in a university education for both 
men and women; but I believe a knowledge of the 
Bible without a college education is more valuable than 
a college course without the Bible. For in the Bible we 
have profound thought beautifully expressed; we have 
the nature of boys and girls, of men and women, more 
accurately charted than in the works of any modern 
novelist or playwright. You can learn more about human 
nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York. 
—William Lyon Phelps, 


All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may 
Lopate thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 
—Paul. 


Books That Teachers Should Own 


THE MODERN READER’S BIBLE. By Ricuarp G. Moutron. The 
Macmillan Company. One volume, cloth, complete text, 1738 pages, 
including full introductory essays to each book of the Bible. $3.50. 


This well-known book is simply the Bible presented in a modern 
literary form. It is not chopped up into bits of verses but is printed in 
paragraphs like any other book, and prose appears as prose, and poetry 
as poetry. The book simply gives the Bible a fair chance and lets it tell 
its own eloquent story as it cannot do when out to pieces in the old form. 
The reading of one of the books of the Bible, as one of the Gospels, straight 
through in this volume gives one a new sense of its vividness and vitality. 


THE ONE VOLUME BIBLE COMMENTARY. By Rev. J. R. Dum- 


MELOW. The Macmillan Company. $3.00. 


This book of 1250 pages compresses between its covers a remarkable 
amount of scholarly information about the Bible, its books and authorship 
and background, together with brief comments on important and difficult 
passages and verses. It has been tried out and given satisfaction to all 
kinds of readers. Sunday school teachers who do not have the time and 
training to use commentaries of technical scholarship will find this coming 
to their help in practical ways at most points. 


THE MAKING AND MEANING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: 
Its Background, Books and Biographies. By James H. Snowpen. 
The Macmillan Company. $2.25. 


This book tells how the New Testament was made and what it means, 
It sketches the Hebrew, Greek and Roman background out of which it 
grew, briefly explains each book in it, outlines the life of Jesus and of Paul, 
and brings it all home to our business and bosoms with illuminating inter- 
pretation and application. It shows us what a surprisingly modern book 
the New Testament is and makes good its claim and distinction to be the 
most interesting as it is incomparably the most valuable book in the world. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PART I 
THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 


CHAP. 
INTRODUCTION. , ‘ - : : 4 : : vii 
PAGE 
I. Tue JEWISH BACKGROUND : : : ; : 3 
1. The Land of Palestine : ’ y : : 3 
2. The Jewish People. : : - as 6 
(1) The History of the Jews 4 - A 6 
(2) Racial Characteristics of the Jews : : 8 
(3) The Religious Nature of the Jews 2 : 9 
3. The Old Testament . 2 11 
4. Conditions in Palestine in the Time of Christ ; 14 
(1) Political Conditions . 14 
(2) The Religious Worship and Life of the Jews 15 
(3) Religious Parties among the Jews b 19 
(4) Religious Doctrines of Judaism 2 ; 20 
II. THe GREEK BACKGROUND : ; 3 i : 22 
1. The Greek Genius . : ‘ . 22 
2. The Spread of Greek Civilization 2 : : 23 
3. The Greek Language 3 24 
4. Greek Contributions to the New Testament : 26 
III. THe RomMAN BACKGROUND A ; q ; : 29 
1. The Roman Genius . : F : : s 29 
2. The Roman Empire R : : 30 
3. Pagan Religions in the Roman Empire , p SL 
4. Roman Contributions to the New Testament : 33 
IV. THE FULNESS OF TIME ° 3 ; : é “ 35 
PARDS LI 

THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
1. INTRODUCTION . i : : : 41 
II, GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GoseEre : : 44 
1. The Historicity of the Gospels . , : : 44 
2. The Interrelations of the Gospels a : ‘ 47 
3. Can the Gospels Be Harmonized? ; : ; 50 


Vil 


Vill 
CHAP. 


eae Ee 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


The Dates of the Gospels 

Why Four Gospels? 

Miracles in the Gospels . 

The Chronology and Outline of Events of the 
Life of Jesus 

(1) Chronology 

(2) Outline of Events 


III. Tue Four Gosprrs 


Li 


3. 


4, 


The Gospel According to Matthew 
(1) Authorship : 

(2) Characteristics 

(3) Contents : 

The Gospel According to Mark . 
(1) Authorship a : 
(2) Characteristics 

(3) Contents ; 

The Gospel According to Luke 
(1) Authorship 

(2) Purpose and Characteristics 
(8) The Preface ; : 
(4) Contents é 

The Gospel According to John 
(1) Authorship and Date 

(2) Purpose and Characteristics 
(3) Contents : 


IV. Tue Acts oF THE APOSTLES AND THE Peres OF (pa 


1, 


LB 


The Acts of the Apostles 
(1) Authorship and Date 
(2) Purpose and Characteristics 
(8) Contents : ; 
The Epistles of Padi: 
(1) Authorship 
(2) Circumstances and Characteristics of the 
Epistles 3 
(3) Chronology of Paul’s Life and Letters 
(4) Contents of the Hpistles 
Romans : : 
Teand 71) Corinthians 
Galatians 
Ephesians . 
Philippians 
Colossians . 
I and II Thessalonians 
I and II Timothy 
Tituse: ; 
Philemon 
(5) Review of the Epistles 


V. Tae Caruoric Epistrrs aNnp REVELATION 


Hebrews 


PAGE 


53 
55 


56 


59 
59 
59 
62 
62 
62 
63 
64 
66 
66 
67 
68 
69 
69 
69 
70 
72 
73 
%3 
74 
75 


77 
Lies 
(7 
ili 
80 
80 
80 


81 
83 
84 
84 
85 
86 
88 
89 
90 
90 
92 
94 
94 
95 


99 
99 


CHAP. 


Wile 


III. 


IV. 


4h 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


James ; ‘° ‘8: % 
I and II Peter 

I and II and III John 
Jude . A 
Revelation 


THE CANON AND TRANSMISSION OF THE font rises ae 


The Canon 


2. Manuscripts 


3. 


Translations 


PART IIT 
THE LIFE OF JESUS. 


INTRODUCTION 
Toe TuHirty SILENT vies 


Seah 


2% ASMARSN AD SASTRY EA AS oe 


The Genealogy of Jesus 

A Holy Mystery Revealed 
The Birth in Bethlehem 
Angels and Shepherds 
Worshipping Wise Men 
The Childhood at Nazareth 
The Carpenter 


IRSt YEAR: THE HARLY cree MErnisrns 


A Great Revival Meeting 

The Baptism of Jesus 

The Temptation of Jesus 

How the Kingdom Started to Grow 

Water Turned into Wine 

First Cleansing of the Temple 

A Distinguished Night Visitor 

A Convert from Low Life 
ECOND YEAR: THE GALILEAN MINISTRY 

A Prophet Driven out of His Own Town 
Preaching and Fishing at Lake Galilee 

A Busy Day in Capernaum : 

A Missionary Tour through Galilee | 

Strange Things : 

Jesus at the Pool of! Bethesda 

The Choosing and the Mission of the Twelve 

Disciples ; 

The Sermon on the Mount—The Beatitudes 
The Sermon on the Mount—The Lord’s Prayer 
Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant : A 
How Jesus Dealt with John’s Doubt 

Jesus Teaching by Parables : 

A Storm on Lake Galilee 

The Tragedy of the Black Tower 

Five Thousand, Fed . 


115 


117 
117 
118 
120 
121 
123 
125 
129 
131 
131 
133 
134 
187 
141 
143 
146 
148 


152 
1538 
156 
158 
162 
164 
167 


169 
172 
175 
178 
180 
184 
187 
190 
192 


x TABLE OF CONTENTS 


CHAP. PAGE 
16. Jesus Breaks with the Pharisees : J : 195 
17. The Interview at Cesarea Philippi . ‘ ) 198 
18. The Transfiguration 7 : t 201 
V. Tuirp YEAR: THE LATER JUDEAN Minieeee ; : 205 
1. The Man Born Blind i 4 : . F 205 
2. Mary and Martha P ; A ; : : 208 
3. The Triumphal Entry 3 A ‘ F ; 212 
4, Certain Greeks : - , ; X : 215 
5. The Lord’s Supper .. A 4 A 4 217 
6. Gethsemane : : A ; . A ; vat 
1 ene aria 4 ; 3 ; : ? . 223 
8. The Crucifixion 4 > : : t 227 
9. The Resurrection . ‘ 4 5 ‘ 5 230 
10. The Great Commission j : ; ; ; 233 
11. The Ascension : A : t , ‘ 236 
PART IV 
THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY 

I. INTRODUCTION . : ; : ; ‘ : ; 243 
II. Tuer CHURCH IN JERUSALEM s : : : : 245 
1. The Day of Pentecost q ; : : ; 245 
2. The Martyrdom of Stephen rs ‘ : : 248 
III, THE GOSPEL SETS OUT ON ITS WorLD MARCH ., i 253 
1, The Gospel in Samaria e : : : ; 200 
2. The Conversion of Paul : : f : ‘ 256 
3. Peter and Cornelius 260 

4. First Council at Jerusalem: Shall Gentiles Be 
Received into the Church? ; ; : 263 
5. The Gospel in Antioch : ; : : 4 265 
IV. Pavuw’s MISSIONARY JOURNEYS ; : ¥ : 269 
1. Paul’s First Missionary Journey ; 269 

2. Second Council at Jerusalem: Must Gentile Con- 
verts Submit to the Mosaic Ceremonies? rf 33 

3. Paul’s Second Missionary shane From Antioch 
to Berea d 4 . 276 
4. Paul at Athens and Corinth ‘ : : : 280 
5. Paul’s Third Missionary Journey ; : : 283 
6. Paul at Jerusalem and Cxesarea ; : ’ 286 
7. Stormy Voyage and ee: A : : 289 
8. Paul in Rome ; - d : 292 
INDEX OF SCRIPTURES : 5 : : p i : 299 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 4 : : : ‘ 303 


INTRODUCTION 


BOOKS AND THE BOOK 


Books are boats loaded with cargoes of ideas, the most 
valuable goods and vital wealth in the world. They come 
floating down the stream of time, it may be from distant 
days and far lands and various climes, and bring us freight 
infinitely more precious than the silks of India, or the 
spices of Araby, or all the ivory and diamonds and gold 
of Africa. Yet are they so plentiful and cheap that no 
one is so poor but may be rich, in this treasure. 

Books are the fossilized brains of thinkers that are gone. 
The ideas that glowed in Plato’s luminous brain or soared 
in Shakespeare’s imperial imagination kindle their fires 
or spread their wings in our minds and hearts. They are 
vital arteries through which the thoughts and deeds, visions 
and victories of men of genius pour into us and throb in 
our pulses. They crowd the glorious consciousness of these 
gifted souls into our minds so that we see through their 
eyes and think with their thoughts and are strong with 
their strength and rise on the wings of their spirits. 

Words, the first and oldest human invention, are still 
the most magical things in the world, incomparably sur- 
passing all our modern wonders. Loom and locomotive, 
telephone and wireless radio are small achievements com- 
pared with the wizardy of words. The sign which consists 
of only a few strokes of a pen or a mere puff of breath yet 
comes nearer to being the incarnation of the soul and the 
very life of the spirit than any other device of man. It 
distills and condenses and crystallizes the living content 
of one soul and transports it to and dissolves it in another 
so that two minds think the same thought and two hearts 
beat as one. A single word may thus diffuse ideas around 


X1 


xii INTRODUCTION 


the world, compel multitudes to think and act together, 
and shape the history of coming centuries. 

Beware of a word: a thousand thinkers and a hundred 
generations and countless heroes and martyrs may have 
distilled their life-blood into it, and at its call they may 
awake and come forth to fight for it and with it. It may 
seem impalpable and impotent as so much empty air, but 
its few innocent-looking letters may contain more con- 
densed potency than all the dynamite on the planet. It 
may unify and electrify a nation, make a million bayonets 
think and conquer the world. The simple word democracy 
has in modern times put kings out of business, overturned 
all despotic thrones and uprooted some of the most ancient 
special privileges and most sacrosanct customs among men. 
The sceptres of kings and emperors are puny playthings 
compared with these magie wands. 

Books are battalions of words that in their massed might 
are charged with mysterious and almost miraculous power 
of molding and merging many and even millions of minds 
into one thought and purpose and life. They resurrect the 
past, create the present and foreordain the future. They 
are the great university and contain all ideas and visions 
and carry in their bosoms the promise and potency of all 
achievements. 

Of all the books in the world the Bible ig incomparably 
the greatest and best. It was slowly produced, as diamonds 
are distilled and crystallized atom by atom, through a thou- 
Sand years at the convergent and crowded crossroads of 
the ancient world where all civilizations and languages and 
religions met and flowed into it. Not only was Palestine 
compressed into its pages, but so also were Babylon and 
Egypt and Greece and Rome. All the world was taxed 
and rifled of its treasures to compose and enrich it. A 
great many-sided literature of the most gifted people 
religiously, it is the expressed essence of their history and 
experience. Historian and psalmist, prophet and poet 
emblazoned its pages with their pictures of the march of 
God through time, tossing impenitent nations out of his 
path, and with the most glorious visions and eolors of 
their inspired imagination. The Hebrew was the most 
richly endowed child of God and yet also was the most 


INTRODUCTION xiii 


wilful and wayward and passed through the deepest waters 
and the fiercest fires. He poured his burning, throbbing 
soul into this book so that it flames with his ardent dreams 
and hopes, is jubilant with his joyous triumphs, smeared 
and stained with his sins and tears, darkened with his 
tragedies, and sobs with his sorrows. 

No other book is so varied and picturesque and colorful, 
so surcharged and saturated with the distilled essence of 
human nature, so woven of the very palpitating fibres of 
the human soul. It is at once the most human and the 
most divine book in all the vast library of the world’s 
books; and like an old rose jar it will ever retain and 
emit its precious divine aroma; out of its ancient moss- 
covered rock will ever gush forth living streams of life. 
It has been and is the most prolific soil and seed-bed of 
other books, and out of it have grown vast forests of 
literature. It can never pass out of human interest and 
become obsolete, any more than can the majesty of moun- 
tains and the mystery of the sea, the beauty of the Par- 
thenon, the plays of Shakespeare, or the soul of Lincoln. 
It is rooted in the religious nature of man and will endure 
as one of the permanent and perennial interests and values 
of our human world. 

The New Testament is the best part of this greatest 
and best book. The New is the blossom and fruit of 
which the Old is the root. It contains the most precious 
truth distilled out of the richest and most sensitive 
spiritual souls and brings it to our minds and dissolves 
it in our hearts. It comes to us out of the greatest 
period of human history, the First Century of the Chris- 
tian Era which still overtops all the centuries. It is 
full of picturesque scenes and stirring stories and dra- 
matic moments. It grows out of a great background and 
is full of great biographies. It is written in everyday 
speech in simple words level to the common people and to 
children, and the simplicity and beauty and majesty and 
music of its style have been the charm and praise of all 
the Christian centuries. Translated into no fewer than 
seven hundred and seventy languages no other book has 
come near it in circulation over the entire globe. It is 
read on every continent and island and is incomparably 


XIV INTRODUCTION 


the best seller in the world today. It is a profound book 
in whose depths scholars may lose themselves, and yet it 
is a popular book and the common people read it gladly. 

It is a highly composite book, produced by many writers 
and containing various kinds of literature, history and 
doctrine, gospel and epistle, parable and prose-poem and 
panoramic apocalypse, and yet it blends this wide variety 
into a rich unity. Woven of many notes and chords and 
melodies, it yet all melts into harmony and makes one 
music. It gathered honey from all the fields and flowers 
of the ancient world. It considered nothing human foreign 
to it and taxed all the world for its own enrichment. An 
Oriental book, it is yet equally understood in the Occident. 
It crosses all continental and racial and linguistic lines and 
is everywhere familiarly at home. While deeply colored 
with the soil and ideas and customs of Palestine its pic- 
tures are true to the life of every land. It speaks to the 
universal human soul and sweeps all the mystic chords of 
the human heart. Never can it grow old and out of date, 
nor can custom ever stale its perennial freshness and in- 
finite variety. One of the oldest books which we know, it 
is yet one of the most modern and matches and meets all 
the experiences and needs of our day and life. 

All its lights are thrown upon its central Figure and 
supreme Personality. It sets in its frame a Portrait unique 
and unapproachable in all other literature which no human 
pen ever produced out of imagination or myth, but which 
was simply drawn from life and brings us face to face 
with the living Reality. So realistic and modern is the 
Picture that Jesus seems to step right out of these pages 
into our homes and streets and marts and all our Iife. 

The New Testament is an intensely human book, and 
yet it is none the less but all the more divine. It is not 
easy to separate and define this divine element, just as it 
is not easy or possible to draw the dividing line between 
the human and the divine in providence or in our own con- 
sciousness. But this divine element is present as a golden 
thread woven into all its web, or as a flame that burns 
all the way through it, or as a relish that is found in all 
its pages. The book is earthly clay fused with celestial 
fire, human flesh filled with divine spirit. Its vessel is 


INTRODUCTION XV 


earthen, but its treasure is heavenly. The breath of God 
is blowing through this book: nothing else will explain it. 

To know this book is in itself an education. It broadens 
the brain, kindles the imagination, purifies the heart and 
transforms the life. More than any other book it has 
shaped and colored the history of these nineteen Christian 
centuries, and with every cycle of the sun it is infiltrating 
its teaching and spirit more deeply into the highest and 
finest civilization. But as yet it is sadly true that only 
dimly and slightly is its light seen and its power felt and 
its truth transmuted into life, and its great days and deeds 
are yet to come. 

There is vastly more light to break out of this book. 
Countless seeds and innumerable harvests yet slumber in 
its soil. When these seeds have been sown around the 
world and are sprouting on every shore and blossoming in 
every heart, when all its truth has been turned into bread 
and assimilated into the life-blood of the race it will be 
seen and experienced that its words are spirit and life. 


Na 


Ki a ee | ' 
Ped as Cong tame 
he > : 





PART I 


THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT 





THE MAKING AND MEANING OF THE 
NEW TESTAMENT 


CHAPTER I 
THE JEWISH BACKGROUND 


Christianity is an historical religion and its roots run 
down into the land of Palestine and back through Hebrew 
history and still further back into ancient Egypt and 
Babylon and then out through the wide Gentile world. 

The books of the New Testament are historical docu- 
ments and follow the laws of such records in their origin, 
authorship, contents and purpose. They sprang out of 
concrete historical conditions, and they ean be fully under- 
stood only as they are viewed in the light of their original 
environment. 

It will, therefore, be necessary to begin this study of the 
New Testament by sketching the background out of which 
it grew. 

The New Testament is primarily a Jewish book and 
therefore it must be viewed as an outgrowth of Jewish 
history. 


1. THe Lanp or PALESTINE 

Palestine, the home of the Bible, is physically one of the 
smallest countries of the world, but historically and religi- 
ously it bulks larger than some continents. It is a mere 
strip of country only about 145 miles long and on the aver- 
age about 70 miles wide so that it is not larger than some 
American western counties. 

It runs north and south along the eastern shore of the 
Mediterranean and consists of four sections: the maritime 
plain, the central mountain range, the Jordan valley, and 

3a 


4 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the mountain plateau east of the Jordan bordering on tne 
desert. 

The maritime plain, about 20 miles wide, was originally 
the land of the Philistines, from which word was derived 
the name of the country. It was and still is the most fertile 
part of Palestine. 

The central rocky ridge runs up through the middle of 
the land like a spinal column, and at the plain of Esdrae- 
lon, which cuts across the country from the sea to the Jor- 
dan, the mountain range turns to the west and buries its 
rocky roots in the blue Mediterranean. North of the plain 
of Esdraelon rise the mountains of Lebanon and Hermon. 

The Jordan valley, or gorge, is one of the most remark- 
able chasms on the planet. It is a geological ‘‘fault’’ or 
slip in the rock strata of the earth which, at the deepest 
point at the bottom of the Dead Sea, is 2,600 feet below sea 
level. The Jordan rises in the mountains of the north and 
descends to a small lake, the Waters of Merom, near sea 
level, plunges down in less than nine miles to Lake 
Galilee, 680 feet below sea level, and then descends in 65 
miles to the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below sea level, the Dead 
Sea itself being 1,300 feet deep. From the summit of 
Hermon, 9,000 feet high, to the Dead Sea is a fall of 10,300 
Fie and a change in climate from perpetual snow to tropic 

eat. 

The plateau east of the Jordan rises higher than the 
mountain range west of the river, and fades out into the 
desert sand, and is the region known in the New Testament 
as Perea. 

Palestine is thus remarkable in the range of its climate 
and vegetation from the intense heat and tropic palms and 
pomegranates of the lower Jordan to the snow and the 
hardy oaks and pines of the northern mountains. Packed 
into this small area is a greater variety of meteorology and 
botany than probably can be found within the same limits 
anywhere else on the earth. It is a crowded museum of 
geography and is one of the wonders of the world. On 
account of this diversity it abounds in picturesque scenery 
and magnificent views. 

Palestine is now generally barren, having been swept of 
forests and being meagerly supplied with water, but in 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 5 


ancient times it was remarkably fertile and produced grains 
and fruits in great abundance. Its chief industries were 
farming and vineyards and olive orchards, and fishing on 
Lake Galilee which was incredibly prolific in fish, and, in 
the days of Jesus, 4,000 fishing boats plied their trade on 
its waters. 

The principal cities and towns in the time of Christ were 
Jerusalem, the ancient capital of splendid renown, near the 
southern end of the central mountain range, Capernaum 
on Lake Galilee, Bethlehem south of Jerusalem, Samaria 
between Jerusalem and the Esdraelon valley, Nazareth in 
the hills to the north, and Caesarea and Joppa down on the 
Mediterranean. 

An important fact about Palestine was its geographical 
and strategic location on the highways between Babylon 
and Egypt and between Asia and Europe, so that it lay at 
the crossroads of the ancient world. This subjected it to 
attack on every side and made it a battle ground between 
the empires of ancient history; and as the main trunk 
lines of travel and trade ran through it, it was exposed to 
foreign influences and absorbed cosmopolitan culture from 
every quarter. 

This central location also made it a strategic point from 
which it could radiate its light out in every direction upon 
the world. Especially was this true in the time of our Lord 
and in the early days of Christianity when Palestine was 
in direct communication with all countries and the first 
apostles and missionaries found roads running out to points 
all around the then known world. 

The Jews loved Palestine with passionate devotion, and 
in their long exile from it they have ever cherished the 
desire and the dream of returning to it as their homeland. 
This desire has survived to this day and is the objective of 
the Zionist movement, which has acquired new strength and 
practical meaning as the result of the Great War, which 
after many centuries has thrown Palestine back into Chris- 
tian hands. 

The Bible is deeply saturated and richly colored with 
Palestine from beginning to end. It was the promised land 
which for centuries lured the Hebrews onward as the star 
of their hope. All its places and scenes became consecrated 


6 THE MAKING AND MEANING 
fl eS 

and dear to them with accumulated sacred and patriotic 

associations. Here they developed their religious institu- 

tions and wrought out their destiny until their final exile 

from it and dispersion among the Gentiles. 

Almost every page of the Bible reflects some aspect of 
this land. Its mountains and valleys, springs and rivers 
and lakes, the hot desert and snow-crowned Hermon, the 
steep rocky roads running down to the Jordan and the 
blue mountains of Moab, wheatfield and olive orchard and 
vineyard, palm and pine, flowers and birds, all the vari- 
eties of climate and scenery and vegetation that are crowded 
into this little country add their picturesqueness and color 
to this wonderful book. 

The New Testament was born in this country and much 
of it was written on its soil. Jerusalem and Capernaum, 
Bethlehem and Nazareth, the busy shore of Lake Galilee 
and its fleet of fishing boats, the plunging Jordan and 
the blue Mediterranean, the green hillsides and flower- 
embroidered plains and the clear Syrian sky, all its historic 
places and varied, scenes meet us on these pages. It is the 
constant background of the Gospels and of the greater part 
of the New Testament. It is still the most sacred land in 
all the world and contains 


those holy fields, 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet 
Which, nineteen hundred years ago, were nailed 
For our advantage on the bitter cross. 


2. Tue JEwIsH PEOPLE 


The Jews are as remarkable and unique among the 
peoples of the world as Palestine is among the countries of 
the earth. 

(1) A brief sketch of the history of the Jews will be in 
place at this point. The ancient roots of this race run back 
mand ete in the east and down into Egypt in the 
south. 

Abraham, ‘‘the father of the faithful,’’ a member of the 
Semitic branch of the human family, is the starting point 
of the race. He was a dweller in Mesopotamia in the Eu- 
phrates valley, a land of gross idolatry, and he was called 
to go out as an emigrant to the west that he might be 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 7 


delivered from idolatrous religion and worship the one true 
and living God. He ‘‘followed the gleam’’ and ‘‘ went out, 
not knowing whither he went,’’ and wandered over Pales- 
tine, living a nomadic life. 

Abraham’s descendants were Isaac and Jacob. Jacob 
and his sons, under the pressure of famine, were forced 
down into Egypt where they settled in a state of servitude 
that became practical slavery, and where their descendants 
remained under the Pharaohs during a period of about 400 
years. 

Out of the bondage in Egypt the Israelites were deliv- 
ered under the inspiring leadership of Moses and were 
conducted to Mt. Sinai, where they received the Ten Com- 
mandments and other legislation of Moses and were organ- 
ized into a nation. 

After forty years of wandering in the wilderness the 
Israelites entered Palestine under the leadership of Joshua, 
the successor of Moses, and conquered the land by the exter- 
mination or subjugation of the Canaanites. 

The period of the Judges extending to 400 years ensued. 
The Judges were local rulers, and it was a time of unsettled 
government and insecurity of property and life when law 
was loose and rough customs prevailed. 

Samuel was the last judge, and he inaugurated the mon- 
archy with Saul as the first king of the nation. David 
succeeded Saul, Jerusalem was made the capital, and the 
kingdom was extended over the whole land and greatly 
strengthened. Under Solomon, David’s son and successor, 
the kingdom rose to its greatest height of power and splen- 
dor, the temple was built in Jerusalem, and the ceremonial 
system of worship under the priests was established. 

Under Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, a weak 
and insolent king, the ten northern tribes revolted under 
the leadership of Jeroboam and set up the northern king- 
dom of Israel with its capital at Samaria, and the southern 
kingdom of Judah remained with its capital at Jerusalem. 

A succession of kings followed in both of these rival 
kingdoms. A few of these rulers were wise and good, but 
most of them were corrupt and wicked and many of them 
came to a violent end. Idolatry and social corruption 
developed in both kingdoms, though the southern has a 


8 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


better record than the northern kingdom. This degen- 
eracy proceeded in spite of the opposition and brave words 
and solemn warnings of such prophets as Elijah and Elisha, 
Amos and Isaiah and Jeremiah. 

The Syrians and then the mighty Asyrians began to 
attack both kingdoms and finally both their capitals fell 
and their inhabitants were carried into captivity, Samaria 
in 722 B. C., and Jerusalem in 568 B. C. 

After an exile of 70 years in Babylon, remnants of the 
Jews returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Ezra and 
Nehemiah, aided by the Persian kings of Babylon, and 
rebuilt the city with its walls and temple and restored the 
former worship. The exile in Babylon thoroughly cured 
the Jews of idolatry and broadened their mental horizon 
and thus prepared them for their world mission. 

Palestine fell under the rule of Alexander the Great in 
322 B. C., and continued under his Greek successors. In 
167 B. C. the Jews revolted and regained their independ- 
ence under Judas Maccabaeus, and maintained their na- 
tional existence until 65 B. C., when Pompey captured Jer- 
usalem and Palestine became a Roman province. 

At the division of the Roman Empire into the Eastern 
and Western Empires, Palestine became a part of the East- 
ern Empire. It fell into the hands of the Mohammedans in 
636 A. D., and remained in their control, with brief inter- 
ruptions during the Crusades, until it passed into the power 
of the Turks in 1516 A. D., where it remained until in the 
Great War it was taken out of their hands and is now a 
mandate of the British Empire. 

(2) The racial characteristics of the Jew stamp him as 
the most unique and persistent type of man known to his- 
tory, and his checkered career and manifold sufferings and 
tragic fate have made him the pathos of the world. His 
peculiar physiognomy looks out at us from Babylonian 
bricks and Egyptian hieroglyphics and Roman monuments, 
and it is one of the most distinctive among men and has 
endured with little change through thousands of years. No 
one would fail to pick him out in any company or crowd. 

He played a great part in his ancient homeland in gOv- 
ernment and literature and religion, and then he became 
a wanderer and has entered all lands and left no shore 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT _ 


untrodden by his foot. He has been an actor or a spectator 
in history since it emerged from primeval mists. He has 
witnessed the rise of every empire and then has seen it 
decline and has stood at its grave. There are few fields of 
achievement in our modern world in which his genius has 
not exhibited its versatility and power. He has been the 
best hated and most universally persecuted man in the 
world, and yet he has also been highly esteemed and at 
times greatly exalted. History has focused the light of all 
the centuries upon him and there he stands revealed, some- 
times wearing the purple robes of wealth and distinction, 
but often clothed in rags, crowned with honor or crucified 
on a cross. Yet in spite of his persecutions and poverty 
he has rarely been a beggar but has rather been the banker 
of the world. 

The most ubiquitous man in the world, he has been every- 
where and seen everything and absorbed everything into 
his life and spirit. Without a homeland of his own he has 
made himself at home in all lands, and mingling with all 
peoples he has yet identified himself with none.. He has 
so inwoven himself into the entire web of the world’s civ- 
ilization that we cannot touch a single thread of it without 
involving him. Whether we are for him or against him, 
there is no escaping the Jew. We cannot even date a 
letter, newspaper or contract without doing him an honor; 
the very calendar proclaims his central place in history. 
The most rabid Jew baiter and the bitterest anti-semitic 
propagandist bow to him in the very act of persecuting 
him. 

This many-sided and wonderful man stands in the back- 
ground of the entire Bible and especially of the New Testa- 
ment. 

(3) The outstanding and supreme characteristic of the 
Jew is his religious nature. The peculiar genius of a 
people is a spirit so subtle and elusive that it is difficult 
to catch it in a definition or cage of words, but every 
great race is marked by such a spirit which it is easier to 
feel than to describe. 

Among the upstanding peoples of the past, the Jew 
obviously stands loftiest and purest in spirituality. He 
specialized in religion. He was not a universal genius, 


10 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


but his nature was peculiarly sensitive to the things of the 
spirit. He stood closer to heaven than any other man and 
earliest caught the light of eternity and reflected it down 
upon and out over the world. 

The Jew was the first to see the one true and living 
God rising above the multitudes of polythestic and 
idolatrous gods that crowded the ancient world. This was 
the gleam that Abraham discerned and followed and that 
led him out into the light of monotheism that finally be- 
came the light of the world. 

The Jew had a strong sense of the righteousness of God. 
Moral character bulked larger and was infinitely worth 
more in his sight than physical might, and an unethical 
god was abhorrent to his soul. His fundamental question 
and faith was, ‘‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right ?’’ 

This Jewish sense of the righteousness of God was accom- 
panied with a corresponding sense of the guilt of sin and 
the obligation and necessity of personal righteousness. The 
Ten Commandments comprise an ethical code unap- 
proached by any other people in the ancient world, and 
though falling short of his ethical idealism the Jew imposed 
this divine law upon his own heart and life. 

The Jew had a masterful faith that trusted God in the 
most dreadful day and darkest night. Though subjected 
to repeated captivity and exile, defeat and retribution, 
and unprecedented sufferings and sorrows, so that more 
than any other he ‘‘was a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief,’’ yet he never lost faith but would sing songs 
in the night and exclaim, ‘‘ Yea, though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for 
thou art with me.”’ 

The Jew was preéminently a prophet, sensitive and 
quick to catch the breath of heaven and the light of God’s 
face. He was ethically the most susceptible soul in the 
world to which God could communicate his revelation ; 
the loftiest peak which was earliest illumined by the rising 
sun of inspiration; the most spiritually harmonized race 
through which God could breathe his music. 

Therefore it was that while other races were endowed 
with other gifts, the Greeks with a sense of beauty and the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 11 


Romans with administrative ability, the Jews were endued 
with religious sensibility so that they became the revealers 
of God to the world. 

This spiritual achievement is the precious and priceless 
legacy the Jew has bequeathed to us. It has fertilized 
and enriched our modern world immeasurely beyond the 
contributions of any other people. ‘‘If it had not been 
for the Jews,’’ said Romanes, ‘‘the human race would not 
have had any religion worth our serious attention.”’ 

The soul of the Jew as quickened by the breath of the 
Holy Spirit of God is the soil out of which grew the Old 
Testament and blossomed the New, which contains the 
ripened seed of Christianity that is now pane scattered 
around the world. 


3. THe OLtp TESTAMENT 


All this history and genius of the Jews were embodied 
in the Old Testament, which is the literary background of 
the New. 

The essential religious history of the Jews, their wander- 
ings and vicissitudes, development in their promised land, 
division and captivity, exile and return, are recorded in 
its pages. The Old Testament is itself a highly composite 
book, not only containing various documents older than 
itself, but also tinctured in its teachings and colored in its 
pages with ideas and words derived from other ancient 
sources, notably Egypt and Babylon. Our fundamental 
religious ideas are very old and go back beyond the begin- 
ning of recorded history. 

The germinal roots and the growth of Hebrew religious 
ideas and doctrines and ordinances are unfolded in the 
progressive revelation of the Old Testament. We see the 
Ten Commandments expanded into the fuller ethical life 
and legislative enactments of the law, the tabernacle give 
way to the temple, and the simple services and sacrifices 
of early ages grow into the elaborate and splendid cere- 
monies of later times. 

The doctrines of God’s unity and sovereignty, spiritual- 
ity and righteousness and universal Fatherhood and love 
and providence; of sin and salvation; of growing ethical 
obligation and social responsibility and righteousness; and 


12 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the expression of these in an increasingly elaborate ritual- 
ism, are portrayed in these books. The teachings of the 
ereat prophets, declaring the will of God as the pre- 
eminent preachers and statesmen of their time and seeing 
splendid visions and uttering eloquent words for all time, 
are conspicuous in these records. Especially did they 
catch views of the coming Messiah in the light of his rising 
sun as it fell upon their inspired vision and flooded the 
whole horizon of the future with prophetic glory. 

The psalmists voiced the aspiration and worship, peni- 
tence and faith, prayers and songs of the Jews in their 
ancient hymn book that is‘still a precious treasury of sacred 
poetry and song to the whole Christian world. 

The lapses into unfaithfulness and sin, the sorrows and 
tears, and the retribution and tragedies of the chosen peo- 
ple stam and color these pages with somber hues and 
mournful beauty. 

It is true that the Old Testament in its early pages re- 
flects low ethical ideas and is blotted on many a leaf with 
the barbarous deeds of barbarous days or the wickedness 
of a corrupt age. But this is because it is an honest book 
in its records and starts with the rude civilization of 
primitive times and advances through progressive revela- 
tion and purer ethical ideals to higher levels of doctrine 
and life; and in the New Testament these lower levels are 
outgrown and left behind. 

Taken as a whole the Old Testament is a mass of national 
literature that ranks as one of the richest literary treasures 
of the world. Even apart from its religious value its loss 
would leave a large and irreparable gap in the library of 
the world’s great books, and its spiritual contents and its 
ministry of preparation for the birth of its more richly 
endowed child make it one of our most useful and precious 
deposits of religious experience. 

All these lines of history and doctrine and ritual, proph- 
ecy and song, led towards the culmination and climax of 
the Old Testament in the New, as the seed leads towards 
the blossom and fruit, or as the dawn ushers in the day. 

The New Testament roots itself back in the Old at every 
point; all its fibres and rootlets run down into the Old and 
draw their nourishment from its soil. The New Testament 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 13 


derives from the Old all its essential doctrines of God and 
man, sin and salvation as seeds which it then expands into 
flower and fruit. The New is thus concealed in the Old, 
and the Old is revealed in the New. It is no more possible 
to understand the New Testament apart from the Old than 
it is to understand the second volume of a two-volume 
work apart from the first. 

The supreme connection between the Old Testament and 
the New is that the sacrifices of the Old prefigure the 
supreme sacrifice of the cross, and the Messiah of the Old 
is the Christ of the New. 

There are 275 quotations from the Old Testament in the 
New, which are so many visible threads directly binding 
the two books together, or roots running out of the one 
into the other, besides the innumerable filaments that inter- 
lace them. 

The Gospel of Mark, the earliest written gospel, opens 
with a quotation from the Old Testament, so that the new 
gospel connects itself up with the old gospel in its very 
first sentence. All the evangelists and especially Matthew 
conjoin their gospels with the Old Testament by numerous 
quotations from it. 

John the Baptist opened his ministry with a text from 
Isaiah, and Jesus chose the text of his first sermon from 
the same book. Jesus expressly declared that he came not 
to destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets, and he 
gave a new commandment which he affirmed was a com- 
plete expression and fulfillment of the old commandments 
of Moses. 

Peter preached his great sermon on the day of Pente- 
cost from a text from the prophet Joel and declared ‘‘this 
is that,’’ the new message was identical with and the ful- 
fillment of the old truth. 

Paul wove numerous quotations from the Old Testament 
into his Hpistles to show the continuity of his teaching 
with the teaching of the prophets. 

Christ and his apostles and all the writers of the New 
Testament appeal to Moses and the prophets to confirm 
their teaching and to show that they are simply carrying 
out and fulfilling the Old Testament. And one New Testa- 
ment book, Hebrews, has for its special and direct object 


14 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the demonstration that the old dispensation of Moses is 
more gloriously fulfilled in the new dispensation of the 
gospel of Christ. 

If we were to strike out of the New Testament all the 
quotations from and allusions to and all the doctrines 
drawn more or less directly from the Old Testament, the 
New would be riddled to pieces and rendered unintelligible, 
or its foundation would be removed and it would fall 
apart. 

These two volumes of the Word of God are indissolubly 
united, one principle and spirit of unity pervades them, 
one heart beats in them and one spiritual blood courses 
through them. They have been divinely joined in the his- 
tory of redemption, and what God hath joined together 
let not man put asunder. 

The Old Testament, then, can never fall out of date and 
become obsolete, but it is still alive with vital spiritual 
truth, and it is necessary as the soil and seed, the frame- 
work and background of the New. 


4. CoNDITIONS IN PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST 

The conditions existing in Palestine in the time of Christ 
are important factors in the background of the New Testa- 
ment. 

(1) The political state of Palestine was that of a Roman 
provinee. The country fell under the Roman rule when 
Pompey captured Jerusalem in 65 B. C., and in 40 B. C. 
Herod the Great became king under Roman control. His 
death occured in 4 B. C., and he was on the throne when 
Jesus was born. 

Herod at his death was succeeded by three of his sons, 
Archelaus, Antipas and Philip. Archelaus became king of 
Judea, but was deposed in 6 A. D., and Pontius Pilate 
became procurator in 26 A. D. and was in office at the 
time of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Herod Antipas 
We tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip became tetrarch of 

erea. 

Palestine at this time was divided into Judea, Samaria, 
Galilee, and Perea. Samaria lay between Judea and Gali- 
lee, and the Samaritans were the descendants of the mixed 
races that settled in the region after the fall of Samaria 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 15 


and the deportation of the Jews to Assyria in 722 B. C. 
Because of these racial and religious differences the Jews 
had ‘‘no dealings with the Samaritans,’’ and this fact 
plays a part in the New Testament history. 

Perea lay on the east side of the Jordan, and it was the 
custom of the Jews in traveling between Judea and Galilee 
to cross the river and thus avoid passing through Samaria. 

The aristocratic and ruling classes of the Jews mostly 
lived in Judea in and around Jerusalem, the capital and 
the seat of the temple worship and of education in the 
two chief schools or colleges, conducted by the rival 
teachers or professors, Hillel and Shammai, and the center 
of wealth and fashion and social life; and Galilee was a 
rural district which contained no large city and was in- 
habited by farmers and fishermen and was provincial in 
spirit and uncultivated in manners. Judea, however, was 
more conservative and traditional and less open to pro- 
gressive ideas than was Galilee that lay more directly on 
the highway between the East and West, and was more ex- 
posed to cosmopolitan liberalism. 

(2) The religious worship and life of the Jews at this 
time centered in Jerusalem where sacrificial worship was 
restricted to the temple. Herod the Great had built this 
temple, which was an imposing structure with marble walls 
and flashing gilded roof, a mass of snow and gold. 

The temple service was held daily and consisted of bloody 
sacrifices and incense offerings administered by white- 
robed priests and was accompanied by an antiphonal choir 
composed of singers and players on instruments and with 
the blowing of silver trumpets, and altogether it was an 
elaborate and splendid ceremony. 

The Jewish sacrifices were of three kinds: 1. For the 
individual, the burnt-offering (Lev. 1:2-3), the sin-offer- 
ing (Lev. 4: 1-12), and the tresspass-offering (Lev. 5: 1-6). 
2. For the family, the Passover (Ex. 12:1-27). 3. For 
the people, the daily morning and evening sacrifice (Ex. 
29: 38-46), and the scapegoat-offering on the great day of 
atonement (Lev. 16: 5-10). 

The religion of Judaism had developed beyond the sys- 
tem of the Old Testament and been elaborated and hard- 
ened into a system of legalism which had grown up around 


me 


16 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the law. This law was the system of teaching and com- 
mandments which was chiefly contained in the Pentateuch 
but had been expanded by noted rabbis. Not only were 
the commandments and ordinances of the Mosaic law bind- 
ing on the people, but these had been extended and 
‘“fenced’”’ by additional rules and regulations which had 
accumulated into a highly complicated set of minute in- 
junctions and prohibitions that were almost impossible of 
obedience and hampered and burdened life to an incredible 
degree. 

These ceremonial restrictions of the most complicated 
and rigid nature were spun around life at every point. The 
‘‘washings’’ so often referred to in the Gospels were not 
the ordinary cleansing of the hands but were religious rites 
for the removal of ceremonial impurity. They were un- 
believably numerous and meticulous and were applied not 
only to the hands and body but also to the dishes and fur- 
niture. The clothing was regulated, especially the robes, 
and the phylacteries or leather straps with small boxes 
containing prescribed texts of Scripture, which were bound 
around the arm or forehead, were also subject to countless 
rules. 

The Sabbath, which was such a frequent occasion of 
friction and collision between Jesus and the Pharisees, was 
especially hedged around with restrictions that made it a 
burden upon life. The command to do no work on this 
day had been drawn out into a thousand petty prohibitions. 
‘‘Grass was not to be trodden upon, as being akin to har- 
vest work. Shoes with nails were not to be worn, as the 
nails would be a ‘burden,’ and a ‘burden’ must not be 
carried. A tailor must not have his needle about him 
towards sunset on Friday, for fear the Sabbath should 
begin while he was yet carrying it.’’ In the same way, 
‘‘nlucking grain was wrong because it was kind of reap- 
ing, and rubbing off the husks was a sin because it was a 
kind of threshing.”’ 

These traditions, which were elaborated into an astound- 
ing system of complexity and trivialiy, acquired an author- 
ity far exceeding that of the law of Moses. ‘‘It is a greater 
offense,’’ said the Mischna, the Jewish book containing 
these additional laws, ‘‘to teach anything contrary to the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 17 


voice of the rabbis, than to contradict Scripture itself.’’ 
‘‘The Bible was like water, the Traditions like wine, the 
Commentaries on them like spiced wine.’’ 

These were ‘‘the traditions of the elders’’ with which the 
scribes made ‘‘the word of God of none effect’? (Mark 
7:18). These were the ‘‘heavy burdens and grievous 
to be borne,’’, which they laid ‘‘on men’s shoulders, 
but they themselves’’ would ‘‘not move them with one of 
their fingers’’ (Matt. 23:4), for they resorted to all sorts 
of ingenious subterfuges to evade them. 

No doubt these complicated rules were invented with 
good motives as a means of serving God more minutely and 
perfectly, and many sincerely pious Jews derived good 
from such religion. But it was a highly external and 
mechanical system and could assume ostentatious and 
pompous forms in public and yet inwardly hide hypocrisy 
and pride and selfishness and even gross corruption, a 
‘‘whited sepulcher’’ concealing ‘‘dead men’s bones.’’ This 
danger ever attends ritualistic religion. 

Jesus came into frequent collision with this ritualistic 
and legalistic religion, as we shall see, and it was the chief 
occasion of his break with the priests and Pharisees and of 
their hostility to him that culminated in their sending him 
to the cross. 

The religious life of the Jews was further centered and 
concentrated in Jerusalem in the yearly feasts, of which 
the principal ones were Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, 
and Dedication. The Passover was eclebrated in the spring 
of the year and was in commemoration of the deliverance 
out of Egypt. It began with the sacrifice of the Pascal 
ilamb and continued for a weck. Pentecost, so-called be- 
cause it came fifty days after Passover, celebrated the first 
fruits of the harvest and was a joyous festival. In the fall 
the feast of Tabernacles, so-called because the people lived 
in tabernacles or booths out in the open, celebrated the 
ingathered harvests, and was a national thanksgiving week. 
The feast of Dedication came in December and celebrated 
the purification of the temple in the time of Judas Macca- 
baeus: im 165.B.-C. | 

There were other minor feasts and fasts, such as Purim, 
celebrating the deliverance of the Jews in the days of 


18 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Esther, and the Day of Atonement, which was a day of 
fasting and humiliation. 

It was required of all Jews that they attend these feasts 
at Jerusalem so that they drew great multitudes to the 
capital. They were not only religious meetings but were 
also social and festive and patriotic gatherings that served 
to bring and mingle the people together and thus to con- 
serve and intensify their religious and national life. 

Jesus is reported in the Gospels as being present on 
several oceasions at these feasts and it is probable that he 
regularly attended them as he observed the requirements 
of the Mosaic law. | 

In addition to this centralized worship at Jerusalem, 
there was the worship that was everywhere carried on in 
the synagogue, which corresponded with our local church. 
The synagogue was found in all the cities and towns and 
villages, as well as wherever Jews were settled in foreign 
countries. 

The service in it consisted in reading selected portions 
of the Scriptures, chiefly of the law and prophets, together 
with an exposition of a passage or a sermon and prayer. 
A collection was taken for the poor. Each synagogue was 
governed by a board of elders, of whom one presided as 
‘“ruler,’’ but there was no minister in our sense of the word 
and any one might read the Scripture or speak, so that the 
service was a social one after the manner of our prayer 
meeting. A curious feature of the synagogue was that ten 
men were each paid a shekel to attend every service so 
that a quorum might always be present. 

The local common school was also held in the synagogue, 
either in the building or in one connected with it, and at- 
tendance was compulsory on all Jewish children, beginning 
at the age of six years. The synagogue school was thus. 
the precursor of our public school. The local law court 
or police court was also held in the synagogue, so that it 
was the center of the religious and educational and civil 
life of each community. The supreme court of the Jews 
was the Sanhedrin, consisting of 71 members, scribes and 
priests, which sat in Jerusalem and had jurisdiction over 
religious matters and the more important civil and crim- 
inal cases. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ify 


It was in the synagogue in Nazareth that Jesus wor- 
shipped and went to school, and during his ministry he 
frequently taught in the synagogue at Nazareth and in 
other places. 

(3) Several religious parties had grown up among the 
Jews, dating from the time of the Maccabees, and these 
play an important part in the Gospels. 

The Sadducees were the high priestly and court party. 
They were wealthy aristocrats who stood in with the 
Herodian and then with the Roman government and had 
political and social prestige; and they usually had the 
office of high priest, which was the principal position of 
religious and political influence. The temple administra- 
tion and services were in their hands. 

As regards doctrines, they held to the Mosaic law as it 
was contained in the Old Testament and rejected the tra- 
ditional additions to it that had grown up into such bur- 
densome complexity. But they also rejected belief in 
angels and spirits and the resurrection of the dead and 
were doubtful of immortality (Acts 23:8). They empha- 
sized the freedom of the will as opposed to the determin- 
ism of some extremists known as Essenes and a middle 
position of the Pharisees. 

Altogether they were the worldly party among the Jews, 
supporting the government which was so unpopular with 
the people, holding to formal religion and occupying ruling 
positions in the church, but lacking in the spirit of piety. 

Over against the Sadducees were the Pharisees, who were 
the party in opposition to the government and were the 
orthodox religious people. The name means ‘‘separatists’’ 
and designates their position and character as separated 
from the less serupulous defenders of the Jewish religion. 
They were the traditionalists who had elaborated the law 
of Moses into all its minute rules and regulations, and they 
were punctilious and ostentatious in enforcing these regu- 
lations on others and yet were expert at evading them in 
their private practice. 

The scribes were men of learning who studied and wrote 
upon the law and mostly belonged to the Pharisees. They 
were traditionalists and were generally joined with the 
Pharisees in their opposition to Jesus and along with them 


20 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


came under his condemnation. The ‘‘lawyers’’ occasion- 
ally mentioned are practically the same as the scribes. 

Two smaller parties mentioned in the Gospels are the 
‘‘Herodians’’ (Matt. 22:16), and the ‘‘zealots,’’ to whom 
Simon, one of the twelve disciples, belonged (Luke 6:15). 
The former were supporters of the Herod government and 
family, and the latter were intense and radical nationalists 
who advocated violent measures against the Romans and, 
during the various Jewish rebellions against the hated 
pagan power, committed many excesses. | 

(4) The religious doctrines of Judaism consisted i 
those of the Old Testament, such as the unity and sov- 
ereignty and righteousness of God, salvation from sin 
through sacrifice and faith; but in addition to these two 
others were specially prominent and dominant in the time 
of Christ. | 

The first of these was the doctrine as to the Messiah. 
The prophets predicted the coming of the Messiah under 
various names and aspects, sometimes as the conquering 
King and at other times as the suffering Servant. Various 
were the views and hopes of the Jews as to the Messiah, 
but by the time of Christ, the prevailing view had fixed 
on the idea and hope of a conquering king who would come 
in the greatness of his strength and put down the enemies 
of the Jews and exalt them in power. 

Corresponding with this idea of a Messiah was the Jew- 
ish doctrine and hope of the kingdom of God. The Jews 
were impatiently waiting and passionately longing for this 
kingdom in the days of Christ. Various views were also 
held of the kingdom, some interpreting it in spiritual terms 
as the righteous rule of God over men in his gracious 
truth and love. 

But the prevailing view was that of an earthly kingdom 
to be established by the wrath and power of the Messiah 
breaking in pieces the Gentile kingdoms, especially hated 
Rome, and setting up a world kingdom with Jerusalem as 
the capital and themselves in the chief offices. 

This hope of a conquering Messiah and an earthly king- 
dom established by his power was the passionate desire 
of the Jews in the time of Christ. It found expression in 
the ‘‘apocalypses’’ of the Jews, books which represented 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 21 


history as a drama in which enemies were destroyed and 
the kingdom of God was set up by sudden divine power. 
Daniel and Revelation are two such apocalyptic books, but 
the Jews had many others. 

By this time the Jews had turned all the symbolical 
representations of the Messiah and his kingdom found in 
the prophets into literal materialistic reality. They wanted 
another kingdom like the Roman Empire with another 
Caesar, only they wanted its capital to be Jerusalem in- 
stead of Rome and themselves to sit on Caesar’s throne in 
place of Augustus and Nero. 

These prevailing views and hopes as to the Messiah and 
his kingdom are a prominent fact and feature in. the back- 
ground of the New Testament and play an important part 
in the life of Jesus. It was because he was not the kind 
of Messiah they were looking for and was not setting forth 
the kind of kingdom they wanted that they rejected him 
and sent him to his cross. 


CHAPTER II 
THE GREEK BACKGROUND 


The background of the New Testament is much wider 
than the country of Palestine, and the religious history 
of the Jews; it really is rooted back in Babylon and Egypt 
in the ancient world, and in the time of Christ it ran its 
roots out widely through the Greek and Roman world. 
The New Testament was largely shaped and colored by 
Greek life and thought and owes much to this wonderful 
people. 


1. THe Greek Genius 


The Greeks were an Aryan people who came down from 
the north in early times in successive waves of immigra- 
tion and settled in Greece and its adjacent islands and 
shores, and there through a thousand years developed 
their racial life. 

From the sixth to the fourth centuries B. C. the Greek 
genius blossomed into its fullest glory, but its fading 
splendors lasted down into the Roman Empire. This was 
the age of its great statesmen and orators and artists, poets 
and philosophers, Pericles and Demosthenes and Phidias, 
Pindar and Aeschylus and Euripides, Socrates and Plato 
and Aristotle, names that are imperishable in the history 
of the human race. 

The genius of the Greeks, like that of any other great 
people, is complex and subtle, and different students have 
analyzed it differently. It had a supreme sense of beauty 
and produced architecture and sculpture of which the very 
ruins and fragments are now guarded as priceless treas- 
ures. The Greeks had intellectual depth and _ brilliance 
and their historians and poets produced literary master- 
pieces that in these fields have rarely been equalled and 
probably never surpassed; and the Greek philosophers 
thought profoundly on all the great questions that still 

22 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 23 


perplex us. If it be true, as has been said, that the ancients 
stole all our best thoughts, then the Greeks got the larger 
part of them, for it is surprising how modern their books 
are. 

Other factors in the Greek genius that have been noted 
were their originality, their freedom, their intense curios- 
ity, their humanism and their versatility. And of course 
they were deeply religious and Athens swarmed with gods 
so that, not to miss any god in their worship, they set up 
an altar ‘‘To the Unknown God,’’ which attracted Paul’s 
attention and became the text of his memorable sermon 
on Mars’ Hill. 


2. Tue SprREAD OF GREEK CIVILIZATION 


The Greeks lacked political cohesiveness and never built 
up a great state at home, but after their decline had set 
in they burst their own narrow boundaries in a notable 
adventure that profoundly affected the ancient world. 

Alexander the Great started out in 334 B. C. and cut 
his way into the heart of Asia, mowing down Asiatic hordes 
in his path and reaching India. Death by fever cut short 
his meteoric career at Babylon in 323 B. C., and his Greek 
generals divided up his empire, Ptolemy taking Egypt, 
and Seleucus taking Syria, including Palestine. Palestine 
thus remained under Greek rule, with the exception of the 
brief Maccabean independence, until it fell under the rule 
of Rome. 

Many Greeks following in the train of Alexander settled 
in Syria and other regions along the track of his march. 
These Greek settlements became centers of Greek life and 
culture and sowed seeds that fertilized these regions and 
produced widespread and lasting effects. The conquest of 
Alexander thus broke up the immobility and stagnation 
of the East and mixed with it the ideas and energies of 
the West and opened a new era in history. 

Many Greeks settled in Palestine and affected its life 
and thought. Many Greek names of individuals and towns 
and regions occur in the New Testament. Decapolis (Matt. 
4:25) was a region lying east of the Esdraelon valley con- 
taining ten Greek cities, as the name means, which had 
been founded by Greeks following in the wake of Alex- 


24. THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ander. Greeks came up to the feasts at Jerusalem, and on 
one occasion several of them wished to see Jesus (John 
12: 20-22) and first made known their desire to Philip, 
probably because he bore a Greek name. The ‘‘Grecian 
Jews’’ (Revised Version) mentioned in Acts 6:1 and 
9:29, commonly called ‘‘Hellenists,’’ were Jews who spoke 
Greek and thus were deeply saturated with Greek culture. 


3. THe GREEK LANGUAGE 


The Greeks developed one of the most flexible and ex- 
pressive and beautiful of human languages, in many re- 
spects the highest achievement of human genius in this 
field. It has a wealthy vocabulary and a wonderful power 
of expressing ideas in all their shapes and shades and it 
is rarely rhythmical and musical. The tongue of Homer 
and Demosthenes remains to this day as a master instru- 
ment of the human soul, capable of voicing its great heights 
and depths, and is still one of our richest means of culture. 

Such a language easily proved its superiority by over- 
spreading the ancient world and becoming a universal 
speech. As formerly French was and now English is a 
world language by which culture and trade and travel 
compass the earth, so in the days of Greece the Greek 
language was the instrument of universal communication 
and life and thought. Cicero said in 62 B. C.: ‘**Greek is 
read by practically the whole world, while Latin is confined 
to its own territory, which is narrow indeed.”’ 

Greek, then, overran Palestine and was generally used 
and understood in the cities and towns by many if not 
most of the people. By the time of Christ Hebrew had 
ceased to be a vernacular language and had grown into 
the Aramaic, as the Anglo-Saxon developed into our Eng- 
lish tongue. Aramaic was generally the common speech 
among the Jews, although many of them also understood 
Greek. 

Jesus no doubt was reared in the Aramaic language and 
commonly spoke it in his life and used it in his public 
ministry. A few of his Aramaic words are preserved in the | 
Gospels. In his sorrow in the garden of Gethsemane he 
said, ‘‘Abba,’’ Father, which was possibly the first word 
his infant tongue uttered; and in his ery on the cross, 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 25 


‘*Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,’’ he reverted to his childhood 
speech. 

Yet we may be sure that Jesus knew Greek and could 
use it on occasion. He must have talked with the Greeks, 
who came to see him (John 12: 20), in their own language, 
and a trial before Pilate probably was conducted in 
Greek. 

The Old Testament was early (285 B. C.) translated 
into Greek and was widely read in this Septuagint version ; 
there were many Greek towns and Greeks as well as Greek- 
speaking Jews in Palestine, Paul was reared in a Greek 
city, and of course the apostles, when they went out as 
missionaries, preached in Greek. 

The outstanding fact at this point is that the New Testa- 
ment was written in Greek. One and only one book of the 
New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, may have been 
originally written in Aramaic, according to an early tra- 
dition, but if so written it was soon translated into Greek, 
and all the others were originally written in this language. 

It is an astonishing fact that while the Gospel of Christ 
came from a Jew and through the Jews, yet it was not 
given to the world in the Jewish language: this immortal 
honor was conferred upon the Greek tongue. The whole 
story of the life and ministry of Jesus, the Sermon on the 
Mount and his parables and all the recorded words that 
fell from his lips went out to the world and have come 
down to us in the Greek language. 

The reason for this, of course, was that Aramaic was 
only a provincial and short-lived language and was not a 
fit and sufficient vehicle to carry the gospel out over the 
world. The Greek, being the universal language of the 
time, was the only proper channel for the transmission of 
the universal religion. Jesus Christ was no parochial 
schoolmaster, but the Prophet of humanity and he must 
needs speak in a world language. The language was fitted 
to the message of good news, and the good news was worthy 
of the language, and so the two were divinely wedded to- 
gether in a union that has not been sundered to this day. 

The particular idiom or kind of Greek in which the New 
Testament was written was not the classical Greek of the 
writers of the palmy days of Greece, but the speech of 


26 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the common people of the time of Christ. Recent dis- 
eoveries in the sands of Egypt and elsewhere have un- 
earthed Greek papyri or letters and other writings of this 
period which show that the everyday speech of the Greeks 
was practically identical with the Greek of the New Testa- 
ment, and these writings are throwing much fresh light on 
the meaning of New Testament words and teachings. Such 
books as Professor Adolf Deissmann’s LInght from the 
Ancient East, containing these discoveries, are an illum- 
inating commentary on the New Testament. 


4. Greek ConrriputTions To THE NEw TESTAMENT 

The New Testament, being written in Greek, necessarily 
derived from that language something more and much 
more than the mere words in which it was expressed. The 
words of any language not only convey their primary sig- 
nifications but also carry with them subtle associations and 
suggestions and implications that cannot be divested from 
their express contents. When words are chosen as vehicles 
to convey ideas these marginal or atmospheric implications 
or overtones go along with them and mingle with the ex- 
pressed ideas. 

Not only the Greek language poured into the New Testa- 
ment, but along with it slipped in a stream of Greek ideas 
and suggestions that helped to shape and color the book. 
Any important Greek word in it is thus more or less satu- 
rated or tinctured with Greek thought. 

A notable instance of this is the word Logos translated 
Word in the opening verses of John’s Gospel. This word 
was in use in the Greek city of Alexandria as a designation 
of divine reason in action or deity expressing itself in 
ereation, and thus John found it shaped to his use and 
applied it to Christ. As a word is the revelation or ex- 
pression of the mind, so is Christ the Logos or Word or 
revelation of God, or God in action. 

The word translated ‘‘propitiation’’ in Rom. 3:25, a 
critical word in connection with Christ’s atoning death, 
has recently had fresh light thrown upon it from its use 
in Greek worship in which it was applied to a sacrifice 
offered to God to appease or satisfy him. 

Not only did Greek words, however charged with Chris- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 27 


tian meanings, necessarily carry Greek implications into 
the teaching of the New Testament, but Greek principles 
of theology and philosophy were also incorporated in it. 
Paul’s letters are especially tinctured and colored with 
these foreign ideas more or less derived from pagan cults. 
Christianity has a native affinity with any and all truth 
and selects and absorbs and assimilates it from any source, 
and so as 1t went out through the world it appropriated 
and transformed ideas and customs from Greek thought 
and Roman law and pagan religions; and in its march 
down through the centuries it has continued this process 
to this day. It has an enormous digestive capacity and 
has thus grown and enriched itself through its whole his- 
tory. 

Never was thig selective and absorbent affinity and pro- 
cess more active than in our age. By this principle our 
modern knowledge is being constantly digested by and 
assimilated into our religious thought and life. As Paul 
said to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3: 21-22), ‘‘For all things 
are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the 
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
come; all are yours,’’ so may we say that all truth is ours, 
whether of Copernicus and Newton, or of Milton and 
Tennyson, whether of astronomy and geology, or of phi- 
losophy and poetry, all are ours to incorporate in our 
religious thought and interpretation of the Scriptures. 
There is no escaping this psychological necessity of doing 
all our thinking in the terms and under the limitations 
of the language and ideas and life of our day. 

The fact, then, that the New Testament was originally 
written in Greek was one of tremendous importance. This 
involved it deep and subtle consequences as it abandoned 
its own mother speech and domiciled itself in a new tongue, 
for every Greek word it used carried with it Greek asso- 
ciations and implications and overtones that entered into 
and modified its own meaning. ‘‘This change meant at 
once a change of race and home; the cradle of the religion 
ceased to be its nursery. So it forgot the tongue of its 
birthplace and learned the speech of its new mother- 
land.’? We know how deeply a change of language goes 
into any one’s whole thought and life, and the New Testa- 


28 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ment did not and could not escape the consequences of this 
epochal fact. 

The result of this change of base was not the narrowing 
and impoverishment of Christianity but its enlargement 
and enrichment. It gave up a meager, provincial and 
rapidly vanishing tongue for one of the richest, most 
powerful, most expressive and most beautiful organs of 
human communication in the world. The New Testament, 
the most vital, dynamic and creative book ever given to 
humanity, did not lose but immensely gained in thought 
and life and power because it spoke to the world and to 
the ages in the marvelous Greek tongue. And although 
the New Testament, along with the Old, has been trans- 
lated into many hundreds of languages and thus is given to 
most of the peoples of the world in their own speech, and 
although it stands translation and carries its thought and 
message over into other languages better than most other 
books, yet the Greek New Testament remains as the original 
and standard of the inspired Word of God. 


CHAPTER III 
THE ROMAN BACKGROUND 


Behind and around the New Testament stands a vastly 
wider background than the Jewish and the Greek worlds, 
the Roman Empire. This is the majestic frame that hems 
in Palestine and all its doings as mountains encircle a 
plain. 


1. Tae Roman GENIUS 


The Romans were an Aryan people closely related to the 
Greeks, the Latin and Greek languages being kindred 
tongues, but they had a characteristic racial genius that 
was in marked contrast with that of the Greeks and that of 
the Jews. The Jews were intuitive and mystical, along 
with all Semitic peoples, the Greeks were artistic and 
philosophical, but the Romans were practical and political. 

The Romans had immense common sense and always took 
hold of things at the practical end. They borrowed their 
arts and philosophy, but they conceived and built their 
own roads and bridges and buildings and government. 
While they imported a good deal of Greek art and phil- 
osophy, yet these never passed into their blood and circu- 
lated in their system, but remained as a thin veneering on 
their civilization. 

Their philosophy was materialistic and tended down- 
ward into the flesh. They endured hardship as soldiers 
in gaining their conquests, and then, feasting on the fruits 
of their victories, they relapsed into ease and luxury and 
sensuality. They were as hard-hearted as they were hard- 
headed, and never was a great people more insensible to 
human suffering. They were pleasure mad, and ‘‘bread 
and the circus’? were the demand of the populace and were 
the two things that would keep them quiet. The Colos- 

29 


30 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


seum, whose mournful ruin is the most majestic monument 
of the Roman Empire and stands as its most significant 
tombstone, typified its life and spirit as it was filled to 
overflowing with 80,000 people frenzied with excitement 
and shouting over the scenes down in the blood-stained 
sand of the arena where thousands of men lost their lives 
in mortal combat to make a Roman holiday. 

The most prominent feature of Roman genius was ad- 
ministrative ability. The Roman was strong where the 
Greek was weak, and weak where the Greek was strong. 
The Greek had philosophical acumen, but he lacked execu- 
tive ability. He could build a system of metaphysics and 
mould marble, but he could not build a political fabric 
larger than a city state because he could not join and weld 
city states into permanent cohesion. 

The Roman lacked philosophical insight and depth of 
thought, but he was tremendous in execution. He had a 
will to govern and political adhesiveness to cement his 
conquests into coherence and stability. Thus, while the 
Greek instructed the world as its schoolmaster and charmed 
it with his art, only the Roman could impose upon it an 
imperial will. 


2. THe Roman EMPIRE 


And so it came to pass that the Roman built the might- 
lest political structure that had ever been erected on the 
earth and that has hardly yet been surpassed or even 
equaled in the world. From the Golden Milestone in the 
center of his capital city he swept a far-flung circumference 
around the western world and shut up within its mighty 
rim the motley multitudes of peoples from the Atlantic to 
the Euphrates and turned the Mediterranean into a Roman 
lake. From one hundred to one hundred and fifty millions 
of human beings were housed under this vast roof, a greater 
mass of population that had up to that time been gathered 
under one government. Within this territory were many 
races and peoples speaking many languages which had 
hitherto been in a state of chronic mutual warfare and con- 
fusion, and Rome reduced all this chaos of tongues and 
strife into law and order and hushed it into peace. 

With his strong sense of the practical, the Roman built 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 31 


roads running out from his capital in every direction to 
the rim of the empire so solidly constructed that some of 
them are in use to this day; and he made trade and travel 
by land and sea as safe as they are in our modern world. 
The Roman legions marched everywhere with their glitter- 
ing helmets and flashing spears and golden eagles, and their 
mere presence was enough to secure order and quiet. 
Roman. officials were generally honest, though many of the 
petty ones were grafters, and they were efficient and fear- 
less and terribly severe in enforcing law and justice. 

The Roman boundary of the empire protected the West 
against the Asiatic hordes of the East and against the 
barbarians of the North. The world had grown weary and 
exhausted with the wars of the closing years of the Re- 
public, and welcomed the peace of Augustus Caesar and 
his successors, despotic as it was, with a profound sense 
of relief and thankfulness. Under the mighty wing of 
Rome the world recovered its exhausted energies and began 
to build up its agriculture and industries and to grow in 
prosperity and wealth. Greek culture also spread under 
the same protection and the higher and finer things of life 
began to grow and flourish. 

For two hundred years after Augustus this peace en- 
dured, and to Rome was given the mission of saving the 
ancient world from chaos and of holding it together in 
peace and preparing the way for the advent and spread 
of Christianity. 


3. PaGAN RELIGIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

Paul’s opening sentence in his sermon on Mars’ Hill, 
‘“*Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are 
very religious,’’ might equally well have been addressed 
to the whole ancient world. Man is constitutionally and 
ineurably religious, and his religious nature is the soil 
which over the whole earth from the most primitive times 
has sprouted into innumerable religions which have sought 
to know and worship the God of heaven. 

The Roman world swarmed with gods in countless num- 
bers. The Greek mythological gods, Jupiter and Venus 
and their whole company that were supposed to occupy 
Mount Olympus and were once sincerely worshipped, by 


32 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the time of Christ had become pale specters and myths 
that were no longer believed in by thoughtful people and 
were generally made the objects of ridicule and jest. 

A horde of Asiatic cults, religions that worshipped the 
sun and fire and other forms of nature, and mystery relig- 
ions with their secrets imparted only to their initiates, 
all with their priests and rites, had invaded Rome, and 
each had its little coterie or larger group of followers. 
Many of these cults were immoral in teaching and prac- 
tice, and one temple of such worship had 6,000 young 
women devoted to its impure rites. Most of these religions 
were decadent and dying, but some of them were vigorous 
and militant with the missionary spirit, and one of them, 
Mithraism, was at one time a threatening rival of Chris- 
tianity that was not overcome and crowded out of the 
field until the second century of the Christian era. 

All these pagan religions headed up into the worship of 
the Roman Emperor, whose very name as an object of 
worship struck terror or inspired confidence throughout 
the empire. Rome was tolerant of all faiths, but, while 
permitting them to exist, compulsorily imposed upon all 
its subjects the worship of the Emperor, which was offi- 
cially and might be perfunctorily performed by dropping 
a little incense on the altar of Caesar in acknowledg- 
ment of his divine authority. The object of this wor- 
ship was notsimply the gratification of the Emperor, 
but chiefly the binding of the empire into unity and 
solidarity. 

When this formal act of worship was rendered, the wor- 
shipper was free to worship any other god or gods, but 
when this act was refused the consequences became orave, 
for this was regarded not only as an act of impiety, but 
also of treason. It was this Emperor worship that pre- 
cipitated the fateful break and collision between Chris- 
tianity and Rome that brought upon the early Christians 
the terrible doom of ten dreadful persecutions and that 
plays so prominent a part in the lurid pictures of the Book 
of Revelation. 

Underneath all these pagan faiths was a great hunger 
for God and a great deal of sincere piety. By means of 
these cults their followers sought to satisfy their religious 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 33 


needs, especially for guidance and courage and comfort, 
and these multitudes of souls were seeking after God if 
haply they might find him; and through these dim faiths 
some light glimmered into their minds from ‘‘the true light 
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’’ 
However misguided they often were, yet 


There were longings, yearnings, strivings, 
For the good they comprehend not. 

And the feeble hands and helpless 

Groping blindly in the darkness, 

Touched God’s right hand in that darkness, 
And were lifted up and strengthened. 


4. Roman ContTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEw TESTAMENT 


While there was not given to the Roman such a glory as 
fell upon the Greek, that of contributing to the New Testa- 
ment his language, yet the Roman contributions to the 
book are large and important. 

Rome furnished the political framework and world back- 
ground for Christianity. It prepared the world at large 
and hushed all its clamorous confusion into quiet so that 
the gospel could be heard. It built the roads and bridges 
over which it could travel and made the sea safe over 
which it could sail. 

It also furnished ideas that passed into the New Testa- 
ment. The idea of law that is so fundamental in the 
gospel, while not a distinctive Roman contribution, was 
yet greatly deepened and broadened by the background of 
Roman law. And the vast overshadowing presence and 
power of the Roman Empire lent its powerful influence 
and impetus to the ideal of the kingdom of God. 

Paul was a Roman citizen as well as a Greek scholar and 
a Hebrew rabbi, and so these three backgrounds, the Jew- 
ish, Greek and Roman, met and blended in him, and some- 
thing from each of them passed through him into his 
Epistles. Roman ideas and customs, some of them con- 
nected with the pagan religions, by various methods and 
means percolated into the New Testament and colored its 
pages in ways which the ordinary reader may little suspect 
but which the critical scholar can detect. Christianity has 
not hesitated to adopt and adapt elements from pagan re- 


34 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ligions, transforming and transfiguring them to its own 
teaching and spirit and use. 

The Book of Revelation especially is set in the frame- 
work of the Roman background and is deeply colored by 
Roman Emperor worship and Roman persecution. 

It is thus seen that at a hundred points and ways the 
Roman world impinged upon and penetrated the New 
Testament. Its government and laws and taxes, its courts 
and customs, its rulers from imperial Cesar down to its 
most petty official, its roads and ships and trade and travel, 
its theaters and games, its city life and riots and mobs, its 
free citizens and its slaves, its literature and art, its reli- 
gions ranging from Oriental cults to the Emperor worship, 
all are in this book. The Roman Empire was the mighty 
all-encircling background and stage on which its whole 
history was enacted. 

Thus the New Testament is a highly complex book. It 
has many roots running down into and back through many 
continents and countries, races and religions, languages 
and literatures, cities and civilizations. Babylon, Egypt, 
Palestine, Persia, Greece and Rome, all sent streams into 
this book. It is composed of and colored with elements, 
ideas, customs, doctrines, ordinances contributed from 
every quarter of the world. A providential decree went 
out that all the world should be taxed for the enrichment 
of this sacred volume. 

These diverse and widely separated human origins and 
elements do not detract from its divine origin and Inspira- 
tion, but all the more enhance its value. These were the 
‘“sundry times and divers manners’’ at and in which ‘‘God 
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.’’ The 
book is therefore the distilled essence of the religious life 
and experience of many lands and peoples. The most 
gifted spiritual geniuses, the loftiest souls closest to God 
and quickest to catch the light of his face, poured their 
light into these pages. It is because of this highly com- 
posite nature, gathering its materials from many sourees, 
that it so completely matches our experiences and meets 
our needs. It is the sifted sum and supreme summit of 
the religious literature of the race, and thereby is incom- 
parably the most vital and precious book in the world. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE FULNESS OF TIME 


Why was it that the Saviour of mankind was not brought 
into the world until so late a period in its history, after 
so long a delay in which many prophets grew weary of 
waiting for his coming, and generation after generation 
passed without ever hearing his voice? Why did he not 
come in the beginning and get an early start in saving the 
world? The question must ever surprise and startle us 
when we come to think of this long delay. 

And yet the answer is not far to seek. Preparation must 
always precede execution, as plowing must go before plant- 
ing and planting before reaping. Even a great man of 
genius cannot be brought into the world until all things 
are ready for him. It would have been of no use to bring 
Sir Isaac Newton into the world in the 17th century B. C.; 
he would then have died unknown without any worthy 
accomplishment; the soil was not ready for the peculiar 
seed of his brain. And so his coming was delayed until 
the 17th century A. D. when all things were ready for 
him. 

In a still greater degree the world had to be got ready 
for the coming of Christ. God did not drop this precious 
‘‘ecorn of wheat’’ into the ground until the soil was pre- 
pared for it and its summer was near. 

The various backgrounds we have been sketching were 
sO many converging paths of preparation for the coming of 
Christ and the writing of the New Testament. The Jewish 
people were endowed with religious genius and disciplined 
through their varied history and experiences to receive the 
Messiah. They were drilled in the great doctrines of the 
one true and living, sovereign and righteous God; of sin 
and sacrifice, penitence and faith; of the spirituality of 
religion and of increasing revelation through the prophets. 

35 


36 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


From Babylon through Egypt and Palestine and down 
into exile and back to Jerusalem they were traveling to- 
wards the advent of their Messiah; and however blindly 
and perversely they missed seeing him in his true light 
when he came, they did prepare the way for his coming 
and his mission and kingdom. 

At the same time a parallel process of preparation was 
going on out in the universal Gentile world. Greek genius 
was developing its thought for the enrichment of Chris- 
tian doctrines and was fashioning and finishing its flexible 
and facile language for the New Testament. Rome was 
also suppressing disorder in the world and binding it into 
unity and quieting it into the stillness of a vast amphi- 
theatre in which the gospel could make its voice heard. It 
was building roads and casting up highways along which 
the gospel could travel and sweeping the sea of pirates and 
making it safe. It was enforcing principles of law and 
maintaining a universal empire that were powerful reén- 
forcements to the kingdom of God. 

And all pagan religions, while they were pathetic and 
often sincere efforts to feel after God if haply their grop- 
ing fingers might touch his hand in the darkness, yet had 
proved the utter impotence of unaided man to save him- 
self by all the altars he could build and all the sacrifices 
he could offer and all the tears he could shed. It would 
seem that God left the world largely to itself for so long 
a time to show it and bring home to the very bosom and 
heart of men that only his truth and grace could redeem 
the world from sin and restore it to his fellowship. 

At this crisis all the stars of pagan faith were fast fad- 
ing into a night of black despair. The Roman Empire, 
while it suppressed disorder, was yet a terrible burden of 
despotism and cruelty on the world. Slavery cast its deep 
pall over its vast domain, and the rich were exploiting the 
poor without merey. Never was the human heart more 
eruel and hopeless. The world was really sick at heart 
and seemed to be reeling to its doom, 


On that hard pagan world disgust 
And secret loathing fell. 

Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 87 


And yet at this time the world stood expectant. Strange 
rumors were abroad of a coming Saviour, in the Gentile 
as well as in the Jewish world, and in many souls were 
deep forebodings of his advent. The universal human 
heart was weary of the burden of sin and was receptive 
of some more sure word of prophecy. 

At this critical juncture the angels announced to Judean 
shepherds the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. Hebrew 
and Greek and Roman had done their work of preparation, 
and the great hour struck. God did not wait a day too 
long to bring his Son into the world, but ushered him in 
at just the right moment. The world stage was set, and 
the calendar of the centuries marked the exact hour. The 
divine philosophy of history is that ‘‘when the fulness of 
the time was come, God sent forth his Son.’’ 

It is in the light of this grand background only that 
we can understand the New Testament, and we are now 
ready to examine its books. 7 


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PART II 
THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 





CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 


Christianity, being an historical religion, early com- 
mitted itself to writing and embodied itself in books that 
are still its foundation and fountain. The Bible, consist- 
ing of the Old and the New Testaments, is at once its 
history and charter and constitution. 

The New Testament contains twenty-seven books as 
follows: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen 
Epistles of Paul, Hebrews, James, two Epistles of Peter, 
three Epistles of John, Jude, and Revelation. These are 
only a selection out of a much larger body of literature 
which arose in connection with the beginnings of Chris- 
tianity, but which, with the exception of the New Testa- 
ment books, has perished. Luke in the preface to his 
Gospel refers to some of these writings which he had in 
hand, and many books of later date, such as the apocryphal 
gospels, have survived; but the books forming our New 
Testament were the only ones which were selected to con- 
stitute the Canon. 

It is an important fact that the New Testament did not | 
ereate Christianity, but Christianity created the New 
Testament. These books are only the record of things said 
and done, and are the consequence and not the cause of 
the history they relate. They are bits of literature float- 
ing on the stream of early Christianity that issued out of 
the ministry and especially out of the resurrection of 
Christ, and they no more created this stream than all the 
books written about Niagara have created that river and 
its cataract, or than any history creates the facts it records. 

Christianity began before there was any single book 
about it; and it would have gone on had no book about 
it ever been written. Of course without the aid of the New 

41 


42 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Testament, Christianity would not have come down to us 
in the same certainty and clearness, volume and power, 
but its living tradition would have carried it far down the 
Stream of time; just as the British Empire has no written 
constitution, but it does have a deep and powerful stream 
of national tradition and life that carries it through the 
centuries. 

It startles us even yet to recall the fact that there was 
no book or line of the New Testament in existence during 
all the earliest years of Christianity. Although Jesus is 
the central fact and figure in the New Testament and it 
is all written about him, yet he wrote not a word of it and 
had no Bible but the Old Testament. We have no record 
of his writing anything except a few words in the dust 
which some passing foot or breeze quickly obliterated. He 
Seemed to be quite careless about his words, tossing them 
out upon the air and letting others catch them up and put 
them on record. 

Peter on the day of Pentecost did not have a page or 
word of the New Testament but chose his text from an Old 
Testament prophet. 

The apostles all went forth preaching the gospel without 
any one of the four Gospels in their hands or possibly with- 
out any written record at all. They simply told the story 
of the life and teaching and resurrection of Jesus from 
memory, speaking as eyewitnesses and declaring ‘‘That 
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and 
our hands have handled, of the Word of life’? (I John 
1:1). Paul never quotes or alludes to any one of our Gos- 
pels or any New Testament book because no one of them 
was in existence until near the end of his ministry. These 
first Christians and preachers had the gospel in their 
minds and hearts and were themselves living gospels, and 
the living truth was at first the only form of the truth. 

Yet the New Testament now contains the teachings and 
life and work of Christ and the early history of the gos- 
pel, and these are the foundation on which Christianity 
rests and the fountain out of which it flows, and these 
books bring the gospel to us in its original form in which 
it is still fresh and vital with its original life. The New 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 43 


Testament is our most fruitful and powerful means of 
grace and blessing and is therefore incomparably tne most 
important book in our hands. More than any other book 
its words are spirit and life. 

It surprises many readers of the New Testament to dis- 
cover that the order in which its books are now arranged 
was not the order in which they were written. It is com- 
monly thought that Matthew’s Gospel was written first, 
and so on in the present order until Revelation, which was 
written last. 

But this was not at all the order in which these books 
were produced. It is obvious that some of Paul’s Epistles 
were written before any of the Gospels, because he was 
eonverted and began his missionary work a few years 
after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, before any 
of the Gospels had appeared. 

Scholars are not agreed as to the order in which these 
books were produced, but they generally agree that either 
Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians or his First Epistle to the 
Thessalonians was the first New Testament book to be 
written. But various orders of arrangement were in use 
in the second and third Christian centuries, and it was 
not until the fourth century that the Canon was finally 
settled and the present order became fixed. 

There is a great justification for the present arrange- 
ment of these books in that they follow the general his- 
torical order. The Gospels necesarily come first in the 
order of their events and then the Acts and then the 
Epistles, because this follows the order of their chronology. 
It is confusing to the ordinary reader or student to break 
this arrangement up and adopt another, and therefore we 
shall follow this natural and familiar order in our study 
of these books. 


CHAPTER II 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS 


The Four Gospels are the root of the New Testament, 
the fountain of its essential facts and faith, and all the 
other books are the expansion and fruitage of this root, 
the broadening stream of this fountain. We begin their 
study by considering some of their general characteristics. 


1. THe Hisroriciry or THE GOSPELS 


The question of the historical trustworthiness of the 
Gospels confronts us at the threshold of our study. The 
final decision of this question logically comes after we 
have gone through them and critically examined them; but 
we can take a preliminary general look at them and get a 
broad impression of their truthfulness, 

The question is, Are these books late productions, writ- 
ten long after the events they record and evidently the 
outgrowth of tradition and legend? If so, their historical 
value is greatly reduced. : 

But they are not late books. There is good ground for 
believing, as we shall see, that Mark, the earliest Gospel, 
was written within twenty-five or thirty years after the 
death of Christ, and still earlier writings derived from 
eyewitnesses were in existence, as is seen by Luke’s preface 
to his Gospel. This date is close enough to the events to 
give us a trustworthy history of them and too close for the 
growth of legend and myth. 

But at present we are concerned chiefly with the general 
impression these Gospels make upon us; for we can judge 
much as to the consistency and reality and trustworthiness 
of a narrative from the mere reading of it. 

Let the student read one of them through, say the 
Gospel of Mark, which can be read at a single sitting. 

44 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT A5 


How does it impress us? As sober history keeping down 
on the ground of reality. The writers of these Gospels 
impress us as having competent knowledge of the facts, 
either as eyewitnesses or as investigators who were close 
to the facts, and as being men of honesty and sound judg- 
ment, insight and sincerity, who had no other motive or 
purpose than to tell us the simple truth. Seldom do we 
read writers that are so free from subjective influences 
and so transparent in their truthfulness. While no one of 
them was a learned scholar and one was a tax collector 
and another was a fisherman, yet they were men of sanity 
and sound sense who were fully competent to judge and 
record plain matters of fact. 

These narratives have all the telltale self-evidencing 
marks of reality. They give details of persons and places 
and dates, events and incidents, in their due order and 
connection. None of the stuff of invention and imagina- 
tion, legend and myth, is woven into their web. The 
things that would almost certainly have been pushed into 
prominence in an invented story are conspicuous by their 
absence. Facts are recorded which would have been 
earefully glossed over or suppressed in a partisan account 
or fictitious narrative. The most damaging facts, such as 
that the disciples at first disbelieved and ridiculed the 
reports of the resurrection of Jesus as an idle tale, are 
boldly written down on their pages. 

The outstanding feature of these narratives is that they 
have none of the inescapable marks of vision and ecstasy, 
invention and legend, which are careless of order and 
system, causes and consequences, and unmindful and un- 
conscious of contradictions and impossibilities as they 
weave all sorts of incongruities and absurdities into the 
subjective fabric of desire. These writers and witnesses 
do not lose touch with the earth and take to the wings of 
fancy; on the contrary, due allowance being made for the 
supernatural events they are relating, they keep close to 
sober reality and conerete details, follow the necessary 
connection of things, and observe the order and unity and 
harmony of normal human experience and historic fact. 
We are familiar with the glowing pictures that are pro- 
duced when imagination works with palette and brush. 


46 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Such artistry is absent from these narratives. In a word, 
the Gospels have all the simplicity and artlessness of un- 
affected truth, and these inimitable signs of veracity are 
So many seals authenticating their trustworthiness. 
Another general impression may be derived from the 
life of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels. The portrait of 
his life and ministry and character is there as an existing 
fact. How did it get there? It must be accounted for. 
We must suppose either that it is a transcript of a reality, 
or else that in some way it was an invention of later days. 
But who could have invented such a portrait, so life- 
like and wonderful, composed of such various features, 
some of which, such as the contrasted virtues of meekness 
and manliness, justice and love, are difficult of consistent 
composition, and yet are combined and blended into perfect 
proportion and harmony? Where was the genius that 
could create out of imagination or weave out of tradition 
and myth a portrait of such remarkable verisimilitude and 
appealing beauty and compelling power which for near 
two thousand years has put a spell upon the world as a 
reality? It is easier to believe that the picture of Christ 
is in the Gospels only because these writers, humble un- 
lettered men devoid of literary training and art, simply 
painted the portrait from life and told what they saw. 
On the general historicity of the Gospels we here give 
one of the latest and most authoritative deliverances of 
critical scholarship. The Rev. Arthur C. Headlam, D.D., 
now Bishop of Gloucester, but formerly Regius Professor 
of Divinity in the University of Oxford, in his recent Life 
and Teaching of Jesus the Christ, sums up the results of. 
his long study of the Gospels as follows: ‘‘I have aimed, 
in the first place, at showing that, accepting the results 
of modern criticism, there is every reason to think that 
the subject-matter of the first three Gospels represents the 
traditions about the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth as 
they were current in the earliest years of the Christian 
church. Then, secondly, that it harmonizes with all that we 
know of the times when Jesus lived and the environment 
in which he taught. Thirdly, that the teaching of Jesus 
is harmonious throughout, natural in its language and 
form to the circumstances and representing a unity of 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 47 


thought transcending anything that had existed before. 
And then, fourthly, that the life as narrated forms a con- 
sistent whole. The result of these investigations is to 
satisfy myself, at any rate, that we have a trustworthy 
account of the life and teaching of Jesus.’’ 

From this preliminary view we may accept these Gospels 
as trustworthy historical documents, but this conclusion 
will be strengthened as we proceed with our study. 


2. Tue INTERRELATIONS OF THE GosPEL 


The problem of the interrelations of the Four Gospels 
is one of great interest and importance. 

In order to compare the Gospels, it is best to study them 
as they are arranged in parallel columns in a harmony, 
such as Stevens and Burton’s Harmony of the Gospels, 
which will be used and referred to in this connection. 

We soon discover that the Gospel of John stands apart 
from the first three Gospels in that there is missing in 
John’s column much that is present in the others, while 
there are many passages and sections and even whole 
pages that are peculiar to John. Evidently the Fourth 
Gospel covers a special field and has a special object in 
view in its narrative of the life of Christ. 

Examination soon discloses the fact that John deals more 
in interpretation of the words of Jesus and is especially 
interested in his inner life as compared with the other 
Gospels. The first three Gospels keep to plain matters 
of fact, while the Fourth breathes a mystical spirit in 
tone and temper. John takes us more closely into the inner 
thought of Jesus and his confidential relations with the 
disciples. The Fourth Gospel is also of much later date 
than the others. For these reasons this Gospel may be set 
aside for the present, and we proceed with the special 
interrelations of Matthew, Mark and Luke. 

These three Gospels give an outline or synopsis of the 
life of Jesus, and are therefore called the Synoptic Gospels 
or the Synoptics. How are they related? Did Matthew in 
writing his Gospel have Mark’s or Luke’s Gospel, and did 
Mark have Matthew or Luke, and did Luke have Matthew 
or Mark? Did each one write entirely independently of 
the others, or did each have one or both of the others? 


48 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


This question was for a long time an unsolved problem, and 
all possible combinations and solutions have been tried out. 
Yet the key to the problem, which has been discovered 
only in modern times, is simple enough when we once 
see it. 

A study of the Harmony will disclose the secret. It 
will be observed that Matthew begins his Gospel with the 
genealogy of Jesus, and proceeds to give the annunciation 
to Joseph, the birth of Jesus, the visit of the wise men, 
the flight into Egypt and the return to Nazareth. 

Luke has a different order and only at three points does 
he touch Matthew’s order as they are arranged in parallel 
columns. Luke begins with his preface and proceeds to 
give the promise of the birth of John the Baptist, the 
annunciation to Mary, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, the birth 
of John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus with the accompani- 
ments of the angels and the shepherds, the circumcision of 
Jesus and his presentation in the temple, and the child- 
hood and youth of Jesus at Nazareth. 

The only three points at which they touch and run 
parallel in the same events are the genealogies, which are 
yet different in the two, the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, 
and the childhood at Nazareth. The two narratives are 
not at all contradictory, but it is plain that each follows 
its own order and selects its own events, and the three 
parallel columns coincide in only three brief widely- 
separated sections. 

But as soon as we arrive at the opening of Mark’s Gospel 
the three columns appear and run side by side in general 
continuity until we reach the end of Mark, when Matthew 
and Luke again part company and each follows his own 
order and tells his own story to the end. 

What is the evident explanation of this remarkable fact? 
It is just this that Matthew and Luke had Mark in hand 
in writing their Gospels and followed his order and used 
his materials. We may accept with confidence the con- 
clusion that Mark was the first Gospel written and that 
Matthew and Luke wrote later and used Mark. 

This conclusion is strengthened by a closer examination 
of the parallel columns in the Harmony. Two thirds of 
Mark’s Gospel is reproduced in both Matthew and Luke, 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 49 


and of the remaining one third, all but 30 verses is found 
in either Matthew or Luke. All of Mark except 55 verses 
is found in Matthew, and all except 129 verses is found in 
Luke, and 74 of these are found in one passage, 6: 45— 
8:26. The only explanation of these facts is that Matthew 
and Luke had Mark and utilized his material. 

There is also a considerable body of material common to 
Matthew and Luke which is not found in Mark. Some of 
these passages are specially important and include the 
preaching of John the Baptist (Matt.&: 7-12; Luke 
3:7-9); the temptation of Jesus (Matt. 4:3-10; Luke 
4:3-13) ; and the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7; Luke 
6). About fifty of these passages that are common to 
Matthew and Luke but are not found in Mark have been 
noted. 

The probable explanation of this fact is that Matthew 
and Luke also used some other common document besides 
Mark. This unknown common source is called by scholars 
Q, being the contraction of the German Quelle, meaning 
source. It is true that this common material may have 
been drawn by Matthew and Luke from more than one 
source, and the problem at this point begins to grow com- 
plex and uncertain. As we know from Luke’s preface 
that other writings or gospels were in existence which he 
used, it is not surprising that Matthew and Luke had one 
or more such common sources. 

Attempts have been made by piecing together the pass- 
ages that constitute Q to reconstruct this document, but 
with small success, as the passages are evidently frag- 
mentary. An examination of these passages, however, 
makes it appear that this source was mainly composed of 
the sayings and sermons of Jesus. 

We may then conclude that Mark’s Gospel was written 
first, and that Matthew and Luke used his Gospel in writ- 
ing theirs and that they also used one or more other 
common sources. 

Another question at this point is, Did Matthew have 
Luke, or Luke have Matthew? The evidence on this point 
strongly indicates that these two Gospels are independent 
of each other, the writer of each having no knowledge of 
the other. 


50 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


3. CAN THE GosPELS Br HARMONIZED 


As we look at the Gospels arranged in the Harmony 
the question forces itself upon us, Can they be harmonized ? 
The question assumes two forms. 

First, what is the meaning of these gaps in the columns 
where the several narratives do not coincide and one has 
matter which one or more of the others omit? How does 
it come that only Matthew and Luke have the genealogies 
and the virgin birth of Jesus, that only Luke has the ac- 
count of the angels and shepherds, and that only Matthew 
has the visit of the wise men and the flight into Egypt in 
connection with his birth,-and so on to the end? How ean 
it be that Mark says nothing of the birth and early years 
of Jesus and starts right off with his public appearance 
and ministry? Why is it that so important a matter as 
the Sermon on the Mount is entirely absent in Mark and 
John, and that many parables and miracles are found in 
one and not in another Gospel? How did it happen that 
Luke has a long section extending through nearly eight 
chapters (11-18: 8) that no other evangelist records? And 
especially how can we account for the fact that John so 
seldom has material in common with the three synoptics 
and that so much of his narrative, including some of the 
most important and precious portions of the Gospel, such 
as John 14-17, is peculiar to himself? These facts look 
surprising if not startling. 

And yet the explanation is not difficult. This explana- 
tion is that each evangelist had access to different sources 
or had a larger body of material than he used, and he 
selected and incorporated in his Gospel such portions as 
suited his point of view and purpose. No one of these 
writers was attempting a full biography of Jesus in the 
modern sense, but each one was giving an impressionistic 
account with a particular end in view, which will appear 
later in this study. It is not strange, then, but quite in 
accordance with their purpose and with literary art that 
these writers should produce narratives of the same life 
that coincide only in sections and at points. 

We see the same fact in books of biography and history 
written today. No two biographers or historians of the 
same personage or period will follow the same outline and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 51 


give the same facts. Open two or four or a dozen Lives 
of Lincoln and the same apparent lack of continuity and 
identity in the narratives is conspicuous; and if they were 
arranged in a harmony in parallel columns they would 
show gaps and difficulties as great as or greater than, what 
we find in the Gospels. Yet the many Lives of Lincoln do 
combine into one consistent picture of the man that is 
fuller and richer than any Life by one author can be. 

So these four brief Lives of Jesus, each of which is in- 
complete and fragmentary and gives only glimpses of him 
from a special point of view, do fit together and comple- 
ment one another so as to give a composite but consistent 
and lifelike portrait of the one Person who is the common 
subject of them all. And the portrait is all the richer be- 
cause it is composite. 

A second question relates to the harmony of the Gospels 
in so far as they do run parallel. Seldom is the parallel 
so close as to be a coincidence, but there are thousands of 
verbal variations, even when the evangelists are reporting 
the words of Jesus. Such verbal variations, however, are 
of small importance and do not affect the validity of the 
narrative. 

More important are variations that seem to involve inac- 
curate and inconsistent statements. Reference has been 
made to the 275 quotations from the Old Testament in the 
New, but rarely are these quotations verbally exact and 
are often only loose paraphrases and accommodations of 
the originals. Mark begins his Gospel with a quotation 
which is stated to be from Isaiah, yet the first part of it 
is from Malachi and only the second part of it is from 
Isaiah. But, to say nothing of the mistakes of copyists, 
the explanation of such facts is that the common usage 
did not require ancient writers to be exact in their quota- 
tions as it does with us, and the evangelists simply con- 
formed to the literary rules of their day. 

Other variations may be magnified into more serious 
differences. The different evangelists often locate the same 
events and teachings at different times and places, or they 
state them differently. The Sermon on the Mount is lo- 
eated differently by Matthew and by Luke, but possibly 
Jesus repeated the substance of it on different occasions. 


52 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


The Lord’s Prayer is given in a longer and a shorter form, 
but the same explanation may apply to this. 

Matthew says that two blind men appealed to Jesus as 
he was going out of Jericho, but Mark and Luke mention 
only one, and Luke says the incident occurred as Jesus 
was drawing nigh to the place. But there is little diffi- 
culty in such a case, for if there were two blind men, then 
ere was one. Such differences do not disturb us in other 

ooks. 

One of the most serious of these variations relates to the 
accounts of the resurrection of Christ. Much has been 
made of different statements in the narratives of this event 
as though they amounted to irreconcilable contradictions. 
Mark mentions three women as going to the tomb on the 
morning of the resurrection, Matthew mentions two, and 
John mentions only one. But again we may say that if 
there were three, then there certainly were two and also 
one. Alli the evangelists give an account of the appear- 
ances of Jesus at Jerusalem, but it is said that only 
Matthew and John know of his appearances in Galilee. 
Yet these differences are harmonized if he appeared in 
both places. 

One gets the impression, when these differences are 
fairly considered, that they have been overstrained in 
order to magnify them into contradictions. Again we must 
emphasize the fact that the evangelists were not composing 
a systematic and complete history of these events, and are 
not even trying to arrange and set forth the facts so as 
to prove them, but are only giving personal experiences 
and impressions from their different points of view. And 
hence we have only disconnected incidents and fragments 
of the entire story, and it is not surprising that we cannot 
put these broken pieces together so as to make them fit 
around the ragged edges when other parts are missing 
that might complete and harmonize the whole. 

These differences also are generally such as should be 
found in independent accounts. If all these writers related 
the story in precisely the same way, this would throw 
suspicion on them all as having been in collusion or as 
simply copying one another. No two men will tell their 
experience of an event in just the same words. While they 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Do 


relate substantially the same story, yet they will differ 
in their points of view and shading and emphasis, one 
relating one incident that another omits, or setting it in a 
different light. 

These individualistic variations in the Gospels are strong 
indications of truthfulness. It is mostly such differences 
that exist in these narratives. It is not at all strange that 
the evangelists that were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ 
had each one more vivid recollections of some of the hap- 
penings of that wonderful day, surcharged with the excite- 
ment of unexpected and unbelievable events, than of others 
and that some of them have emphasized the appearances 
at Jerusalem and others those in Galilee. They may differ 
widely and even seriously at such points, and yet all be 
telling the truth, which fuller light would make plain to 
us. There is such substantial agreement among them that 
we feel sure of their testimony to the essential facts. Such 
agreement satisfies us in historical matters. 

Let it be admitted that there are variations and dis- 
erepancies in the Gospels, some of which have not yet been 
reconciled, yet these are unimportant in comparison with 
their general agreement and do not impair the substantial 
truth and value of their testimony. 

Our conclusion then is that the Four Gospels stand the 
light of examination and are shown to be trustworthy 
historical documents. They have been under the fiercest 
test of criticism for centuries and have held their place in 
the field of scholarship and in the faith of the Christian 
world. Scholars are not unanimous in their views in all 
these points, and there are yet unexplained remainders 
to be cleared up in New Testament criticism, but we have 
solid ground on which to hold that these Gospels are not 
eunningly devised fables but are an honest record of things 
that were not done in a, corner and are not afraid of the 
light of day. 


4. Tur Dates oF THE GOSPELS 


The three synoptic Gospels are so interrelated and linked 
together, as we have seen, that their dates become a com- 
mon problem, while the date of the Fourth Gospel, being 
much later, can be set aside until we come to its particular 


o4 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


study. If we can fix the date of one of the synoptics we 
can draw some conclusions as to the dates of the others. 

A base line at this point is the date of the Acts of the 
Apostles. The author of this book is Luke, the traveling 
companion of Paul, who appears in the narrative at chapter 
16:10 where he includes himself with Paul under the 
designation “‘we.’? The Acts from this point on is prac- 
tically the biography of Paul by Luke, and Luke closes 
it with Paul under arrest in Rome waiting for his trial, 
which probably did not occur until after his release and 
further work as a missionary and his second arrest and 
final trial and execution. ~ 

The inference is therefore direct and strong that Luke 
wrote the Acts before the final trial and death of Paul; 
for if he completed his biography of Paul after this event 
he would certainly have given an account of it. We can- 
not think of a biographer of Lincoln, writing after his 
death, concluding his book without a reference to this 
tragical event. 

Paul was executed in Rome under Nero, who died in 
68 A. D., and the death of Paul has been placed at 64 and 
the date of the Acts at or near 62. But Luke wrote his 
Gospel before he wrote the Acts, as we learn from his 
preface to the Acts, and its date must be placed near 60. 
Mark’s Gospel is still earlier than Luke’s, as we have seen, 
and therefore, its date falls between 55 and 60. This line 
of reasoning and these dates have behind them the weighty 
authority of Harnack and many other scholars. 

This date of Mark is supported by the contents of the 
Gospel, especially by the fact that it was clearly written 
before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70, 
as it contains no reference to that cataclysmic event except 
Christ’s prophetic prediction of it. The date of Matthew 
comes after Mark, but cannot be so clearly fixed. It was 
probably written in its original form before or near the 
destruction of Jerusalem and may have undergone some 
later editing. 

We may then date the synoptic Gospels at from 55 to 
70 A. D., and this takes them back of the region of legend 
and myth into trustworthy historical connection with their 
contents and with eyewitnesses. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 55 


5. Wuy Four GosPets 


The question arises how there came to be just four 
Gospels. Fanciful reasons for this fact were given in early 
times, such as that they correspond with the four seasons 
or the four winds of heaven, and so on. ‘There is, how- 
ever, nothing mysterious or even remarkable in the fact. 
Every great man has many biographies written of him, 
and the same historical and literary instinct prompted 
‘“‘many to set forth a declaration of those things’’ which 
were surely believed among the first Christians, as Luke 
says in his preface to his Gospel. Our Four Gospels, then, 
are a selection from a much larger number which have 
been lost. It is not impossible that one or more of these lost 
Gospels may yet be found. 

It is a fortunate event that we have these Four Gospels, 
for we thus have as many separate portraits of our Lord 
that complement and complete one another. The absence 
of any one of these would be an enormous loss and im- 
poverishment to our knowledge of Jesus, and it takes all 
of them fused into unity to give us anything like a full 
and rich and adequate appreciation and apprehension of 
him. For these evangelists did not simply reproduce or 
copy one another, but each one wrote from his own point of 
view out of his personal experience and for his own pur- 
pose. They thus give us so many supplementary views 
and interpretations of the same Person. They pass the 
manifold contents and colors of the life and ministry of 
Jesus through the prisms of their peculiar minds and give 
us combined a more glorious spectrum of his person and 
character; or their superimposed pictures combine and 
blend into a composite portrait that is fuller and richer. 

Each evangelist wrote for his own audience and with 
his own object in view, as will appear later. Matthew 
wrote more especially for the Jewish converts to convince 
them that Jesus is the Messiah of the old Testament. Mark 
wrote in Rome under the direction of Peter to present 
Jesus to the Gentiles as a mighty worker and Saviour. 
Luke wrote primarily to convince a Roman friend of the 
certainty of the things of the Gospel, but being a physician 
and scholar and a Greek, he addressed a wider audience. 
John wrote for the church to give an interpretative por- 


06 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


trait of Christ as the Word who abides in mystical union 
with believers. 

These four points of view are distinct yet are comple- 
mentary, and no one of them could be missed without 
marring the composite picture in a serious degree: fused 
together they present that wonderful Life that is the 
praise of the ages and has put its spell on all these Chris- 
tian generations. 

The Christian centuries and world have been largely 
guided and. shaped and inspired by these four brief 
pamphlets, any one of which can be read through at a 
sitting. But brief as they are, they are charged with 
infinitely precious significance. Many a classic of Greek 
and Roman literature has been lost and buried in the dust 
of the ages, but these four little writings have come down 
through all the vicissitudes of the centuries that have con- 
vulsed continents and wrecked empires unscathed and are 
as fresh and vital as ever. There is something in them 
that the world will not let die. When the early Christians 
connected these Four Gospels with cosmic agents such as 
the seasons and the winds they were guided by a true 
instinct, for they are human in form yet superhuman in 
contents and are the power of God unto salvation. 


6. MIRACLES IN THE GOSPELS 


There are accounts of miracles incorporated in all the 
Four Gospels and it may be well to dispose of the question 
of their reality in this place. 

A miracle may be defined as an event in the physical 
world not explainable by known natural laws or human 
agency, wrought for a worthy religious object, and there- 
fore to be attributed to the special act of God to authenti- 
cate his redemptive presence and work among men. 

That there are such signs recorded in the Bible is plain 
enough, but they are not nearly so plentiful as is com- 
monly supposed. Many appear to think that the Bible is 
full of miracles and that they just dripped from the 
fingers of Jesus. But they are comparatively few and 
scarce in the Bible, and only about thirty are attributed to 
Jesus and about one third of these are instances of healing, 
some of which may not have been strictly miraculous but 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 57 


within the bounds of natural agencies. Not every ‘‘won- 
der’’ or ‘‘sign’’ was a miracle, and it is not always easy to 
draw the line between where the natural leaves off and the 
supernatural begins. 

Jesus was possessed of extraordinary powers of per- 
sonality and did not ordinarily draw upon his super- 
natural power to accomplish his purposes, but kept well 
within his human limitations, as is ilustrated in his 
temptations in the wilderness. He used miracles charily 
and kept them in the background and refused to permit 
them to be exploited as mere wonders. Yet that, according 
to the Gospels, he did work miracles in the supernatural 
sense is a plain matter of record. 

These miracles were never spectacular or absurd and 
silly performances, such as the alleged miracles attributed 
to Jesus in the apocryphal gospels, but they were sober and 
sane, keeping close to the ground of nature and were fitting 
and worthy works of the Son of God. His miracles were 
always proper manifestations of his divine personality and 
power and were wrought as illustrations and activities of 
his redemptive presence and purpose. That they did 
authenticate his divine person and mission was only an 
incidental object and result. They were integral parts of 
his message and mission and are not to be separated from 
them. 

The miracles of Christ must not be dissociated from this 
framework and background of worthy purpose. A mere 
wonder, however supernatural it might seem, that was un- 
related to any such worthy end, would be difficult if not 
impossible of proof; but the miracles of our Lord fit into 
his divine character and mission and are consonant there- 
with. Any historical event is rational and capable of 
proof very much in proportion to its congruity with its 
environment in time and place and purpose, and in the 
light of this principle the miracles of Jesus are appropriate 
to him as leaves to a tree or as light to the sun, and there- 
fore they present themselves to us as rational events ca- 
pable of proof, and this proof is the main question to be 
considered. 

The writers of the Gospels do not show any conscious 
anxiety or intention to prove the miracles of Jesus by 


58 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


direct evidence and argument with one outstanding 
exception: the resurrection of our Lord. This is pushed 
out into the light of publicity and supported by many 
witnesses and much evidence and direct argument and is 
thus attested ‘‘by many infallible proofs’’ (Acts 1:3). 
The evangelists all narrate it with fulness and particu- 
larly, and Paul expressly argues it and stakes the whole 
Gospel upon it (1 Cor. 15:1-20). This miracle stands as 
the central pillar and support of the supernatural in the 
New Testament, and as long as it stands the other miracles 
will stand with it. He who could raise himself from the 
dead could also with perfect mastery and ease heal the 
sick and still the stormy sea. The detailed examination 
of this epochal event in the life of Christ will come up 
later in our study, and it is here adduced as a central 
support and proof of the miraculous element in the 
Gospels. 

While specific proof is not given for other miracles in 
the Gospels, yet many of them are so interwoven with the 
entire web of the account that they could not be dissected 
out without dismembering and destroying the whole narra- 
tive. If any such conversation as is recorded in John 9 
with reference to the restored blind man took place, then 
the miracle of opening his eyes must also be historical. 

The relation of miracle to natural law calls for a word. 
A miracle is not a violation of natural law but only the 
intervention of a higher power to turn natural law to its 
own purpose. The human will is constantly interposing 
its presence and purpose in the world of natural law and 
thereby effecting results that nature itself would never 
accomplish. One cannot close a window or lift his hand 
without doing something that is strictly supernatural; and 
what man can do in his finite degree and way, God and 
God in Christ can do in his perfect way. 

Perhaps the chief difficulty the modern mind feels in 
connection with miracles is that nature is viewed as a 
closed and rigid system of mechanical action which must 
proceed in its determined operations and cannot be inter- 
rupted at any special point in any special way. 

But philosophy views nature, not as a closed and com- 
plete world in itself, but as a part of a larger spiritual 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 59 


system or living organism in which God is immanent, or 
as the mode of the divine activity, and then physical laws 
are habits of the divine will and are still subject! to special 
divine purposes. On this view, miracles are such special 
acts and fall within the sweep of wider laws and higher 
ends. In such a world the miracle of the resurrection of 
Christ violated no law but fulfilled a high spiritual end 
and was a supremely rational event. As all physical laws 
continue in their operation while we turn them to our use 
and ends, so the miracles of Christ did not violate or arrest 
any natural laws but only caused them to move in the 
larger orbit of his plan and purpose as the revelation of 
God and the Saviour of the world. 


7. Tue CHRONOLOGY AND OUTLINE OF EVENTS OF THE LIFE 
OF JESUS 


Before examining the Gospels it may be well to fix their 
general chronology and the outline of events in the life 
of Jesus. 

(1) Chronology. It was not until the sixth century, 
A. D., that the birth of Jesus was adopted as the initial 
date of our calendar, and therefore it is not surprising 
that this event was placed four years too late. Jesus was 
born under Herod the Great and he died in 4 B. C., and 
therefore Jesus must have been born in or before this 
year, which is the commonly accepted year of his birth. 

As Jesus began to teach at the age of thirty (Luke 
3:23), he entered upon his ministry in 26 A. D. The dura- 
tion of his ministry depends on how many Passover feasts 
he attended, and this depends on whether the unnamed 
feast of John 5:1 was a Passover. The view is generally . 
accepted that it was a Passover, making four he attended 
(John 2:18; 5:1; 6:4; 12:1), and this would make his 
ministry extend to three years and the ascension would 
fall in the spring of 29 A. D. There are elements of un- 
certainty in these dates, but they are approximately cor- 
rect. 

(2) Outline of Events in the Life of Jesus. The life 
of Jesus falls into two main parts, the thirty silent years, 
and the three years of the public ministry. 

Of the three years of the public ministry, the first was 


60 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


spent chiefly in Judea and has been designated py Dr. 
James Stalker the year of obscurity; the second was spent 
in Galilee and was the year of growing popularity; the 
third was spent chiefly in Perea and Judea and was the 
year of increasing opposition. These years are not to be 
taken strictly as one year each, as the early Judean min- 
istry was probably less than a year, and the Galilean 
ministry extended to considerably more than a year, but 
the three periods into which the public ministry falls may 
be approximately designated as years. 

The chief events of the life of Jesus may be arranged 
in the following outline, which is the framework into which 
we shall fit the contents of each Gospel. We cannot always 
be sure of the chronological order, but this general arrange- 
ment cannot be far from the facts and will serve our prac- 
tical purpose. 


PARTS 


THe THIRTY SILENT YEARS 
B. C. 4—A. D. 26 


. The genealogies. 

. The annunciations of the births of John the Baptist and 
of Jesus. 

. The birth at Bethlehem. 

. Angels, shepherds and Wise Men. 

. The quiet years at Nazareth. 


PART II 


THE PUBLIC MINISTRY 
B.C. 26—A. D. 29 


FIRST YEAR 
Harly Judean Ministry: Year of Obscurity 
. The ministry of John the Baptist. 
. The baptism of Jesus. 
. The temptation. 
First disciples of Jesus. 
First miracle. 
First cleansing of the Temple. 
. Discourse with Nicodemus. 
. The codperation of Jesus with John. 
. Departure from Judea. 
. Discourse with the Woman of Samaria. 


SECOND YEAR 
Galilean Ministry: Year of Popularity 
. First rejection at Nazareth and removal to Capernaum. 


COORG WH 


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COMND OB obo ES 


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Jt fot 
HODDNATP WIE 


pad fk fod 
Hm CO ND 


fad ped ed ed 
CO CO AI Sd ON 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 


. Itinerant preaching in Galilee. 
. Calling the Twelve and the Sermon on the Mount. 


Many miracles. 

John the Baptist’s last message. 
Many parables. 

Second rejection at Nazareth. 


. The feeding of the five thousand. 

. Break with the Pharisees on eating. 
10. 
14 
ier 
13. 


Renewed controversy with the Pharisees. 
Retirement to the north: Peter’s confession. 
The transfiguration. 

Discourse on humility. 


THIRD YEAR 
Later Judean Ministry: Year of Opposition 


. Arrival in Judea. 


The mission of the seventy. 
Jesus foretells his death. 
Incidents on the way to Jerusalem. 


. Anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany. 


Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 


. Second cleansing of the Temple. 

. Questions and controversies. 

. Discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. 
. The conspiracy between the priests and Judas. 
. The Last Supper. 

. Christ’s farewell discourses. 

. Gethsemane. 

. Betrayal and arrest. 

. The trial. 

. The erucifixion. 

. The burial. 

. The resurrection. 

. The appearances and ascension, 


61 


CHAPTER ITI 
THE FOUR GOSPELS 


We now proceed to an examination of each of the Four 
Gospels. : 


1. THE GospeL AccorpDING To MaTTHEw 

(1) Authorship. The title, ‘‘The Gospel According to 
Matthew,’’ does not necessarily mean the Gospel by 
Matthew or written by him, but the gospel story as he 
reported it. There is evidence that Matthew’s report of 
the gospel was an earlier writing than our Matthew. 
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis early in the second century, 
is quoted by Eusebius, a church historian of the third cen- 


tury, as follows: ‘‘Matthew, in the Hebrew dialect, com- 
piled the Logia, and each one interpreted them according 
to his ability.’’ ‘‘Logia’’?’ means words or speeches, and 


this early book by Matthew, consisting of the sayings and 
sermons of Jesus, was written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and 
was then translated and used together with Mark’s Gospel 
by the author or editor of our Matthew. 

This view is borne out by the fact that 411 verses, or 
two-fifths, of Matthew consist of the reported words of 
our Lord. There is then back of our Matthew an earlier 
Matthew, but the name of the apostle rightly stands in 
connection with our Gospel as being ‘‘The Gospel Accord- 
ing to Matthew.”’ 

As Matthew was a tax collector (Matt. 9:9), he was 
used to gathering facts and statistics and to reducing them 
to tabular form and writing, and this was literary train- 
ing that fitted him for collecting materials for and com- 
posing his Gospel. It is thought by some scholars that he 
shows a fondness for numerical combinations, such as 

62 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 63 


groups of three, five, seven or ten incidents or topics, and 
this may have grown out of his habit of tabulating matters 
in his tax reports. His business methods would uncon- 
sciously ereep into his writing. 

No information is available as to his place of residence 
at the time of writing the Gospel, or of his career and 
death as an apostle. Eusebius says of him: ‘‘For Mat- 
thew, after preaching to Hebrews, when about to go 
also to others, committed to writing in his native 
tongue the Gospel that bears his name; and so by his writ- 
ing supplied, to those whom he was leaving, the loss of his 
presence. ’’ 

(2) Characteristics. Matthew’s point of view and pur- 
pose is plain: he is writing to the Jews to show that Jesus 
is the Messiah of the Old Testament. This purpose begins 
with the genealogy and continues through the visit of the 
Magi and runs through the whole teaching that the gospel 
fulfills and expands the law of Moses, down to the form 
of the inscription on the cross and the great commission 
(Matt. 28: 18-20) as carrying out the Messianic predictions 
of the prophets. ‘‘Think not that I am come to destroy 
the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to 
fulfill’? (5:17) is a prineiple in the teaching of Jesus that 
Matthew never lets his readers forget. 

Matthew quotes the Old Testament more frequently than 
any other evangelist, giving twenty-nine such quotations, 
of which ten are peculiar to himself. When we compare 
Matthew with parallel passages in Mark, we find that 
often when Mark makes a simple statement of fact Matthew 
confirms and enriches it with a quotation from the Old 
Testament. Thus, when Mark states that Jesus and his 
disciples ‘‘went into Capernaum’’ (1:21), Matthew states 
that this was done ‘‘that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by Isaiah the prophet’’ (4:14), and quotes Isa. 
9:1-2. ‘‘To Mark’s simple statement that Jesus withdrew 
himself to the sea after the collision with the Pharisees, 
occasioned by the healing on the Sabbath of the man with 
the withered hand (Mark 3:7), the first evangelist attaches 
a fine prophetic picture, as if to show readers the true 
Jesus as opposed to the Jesus of the Pharisaic imagination 
(Matt. 12:15-21). From these instances we see his method. 


64 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


He is not inventing history, but enriching history with 
prophetic emblazonments for apologetic purposes, or for 
increase of edification’’ (Hxpositor’s Greek Testament, 
Vourlwp4L). 

Matthew is thus on every page connecting the gospel 
with the Old Testament and showing that the teaching of 
the Old Testament is fulfilled in the person and mission 
and kingdom of Jesus as the true Messiah and is thus re- 
moving doubts and misgivings from the minds of Jewish 
converts and confirming them in the Christian faith. It is 
difficult for us to realize how great was the transition from 
the old to the new, what a wrench and shock it gave to 
Jewish loyalty and faith to seem to give up the one for the 
other, and how earnest were the efforts of the New Testa- 
ment writers to show the Jewish Christians that they were 
not sacrificing their old faith, but were only fulfilling and 
enriching it in receiving the new faith. This was Mat- 
thew’s special purpose and it is deeply stamped upon every 
page of his Gospel. 

That Matthew is the Jewish Gospel is also seen in the 
fact that it is more deeply impregnated and richly colored 
with the soil of Palestine than any other Gospel. He is 
minutely acquainted with Jewish history and custom and 
assumes that his readers understand these. The seven 
parables in chapter 13 show acquaintance with Jewish 
farming and fishing, housekeeping, the fondness for and 
traffic in jewels and other matters, and while Jesus spoke 
these parables only Matthew records them all and thereby 
shows his keen interest in them. He knew his own coun- 
try and people and wrote for them a Gospel that must 
have touched more native chords in their hearts and 
appealed to them more deeply than any other of these 
narratives. | 

(3) Contents. Matthew, as well as the other evangel- 
ists, does not always follow a chronological order, espe- 
cially in the teachings of Jesus, but groups together de- 
tached sayings and larger portions of discourses delivered 
at different times. However a general progressive plan 
may be plainly traced, and we can fit the chief portions of 
Matthew into our Outline of Events in the life of Jesus 


as follows: 


a8 


III. 


si 
2. 
3. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 65 


PARTI: THE TuHirty Sment Years, 1-2. 


The genealogy, 1: 1-17. 
The birth at Bethlehem, 1: 18-2: 23. 
The quiet years at Nazareth, 2: 23. 


PART II: Tue Pustic MInistry, 3-28. 


First Year: The Early Judean Ministry, 3-4: 11. 


iP 
2. 


3. 


The ministry of John the Baptist, 3: 1-13. 
The baptism of Jesus, 3: 13-17. 
The temptation of Jesus, 4:1 -11. 


SECOND YEAR: The Galilean Ministry. 


Ae 


m os 


CO CO AIS? OT 


Departure from Judea and settlement at Capernaum. 
4: 12-17. 


. Call of the Four and itinerant preaching in Galilee, 


4:18-23. 


. Controversies with scribes and Pharisees, 9:1-17, 


12: 9-14. 


. Calling the Twelve, 10:2-4, and the Sermon on the 


Mount, 5-8. 


. John the Baptist’s last message, 12: 2-19. 

. Warnings to the scribes and Pharisees, 12: 22-45, 

. The true kindred of Christ, 12: 46-50. 

. Many parables, 13, and miracles, 8: 23-84, 9: 18-384. 

. Second rejection at Nazareth, 13: 54-58. 

. The mission of the Twelve, 9: 386-11: 1. 

. Death of John the Baptist, 14: 1-12. 

. The feeding of the five thousand, 14: 13-23. 

. Break with the Pharisees on eating, 15: 1-20. 

. Journey to the region of Tyre and return, 15: 21-381. 

. Feeding of the four thousand, 15: 32-88. 

. Renewed controversy with the Pharisees, 15: 39-16: 12, 
. Retirement to the north: Peter’s confession, 16: 13-20. 
. The transfiguration, 17: 1-20. 

. Discourse on humility, 18. 


THirp YEAR: The Later Judean Ministry, 19-28, 


1. Arrival in Judea, 19: 1-2. 

2. The mission of the seventy, 11: 20-30. 

3. Jesus foretells his death, 20: 17-19. 

4, Incidents on the way to Jerusalem, 20: 20-34. 
5. Anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany, 26: 6-18. 
6. 
*§ 
8 
9 
10 


The triumphal entry to Jerusalem, 21: 1-11. 


. Second cleansing of the Temple, 21: 12-17. 

. Questions and controversies, 21 : 23-23. 

. Discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, 24-25. 
. The conspiracy between the chief priests and Judas, 


26:1-5, 14-15. 


. The Last Supper, 26: 17-80. 
. Christ’s farewell discourses, 26: 31-85. 
. Gethsemane, 26: 386-46. 


66 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


14. Betrayal and arrest, 26: 47-56. 
15. The trial, 26: 57-27: 31. 
16. The crucifixion, 27 : 32-56. 
17. The burial, 27 : 57-66. 
J #6. The resurrection, 28: 1-10. 
79 *6. The appearances, 28: 16-20. 


Matthew omits the events in the first year of the min- 
istry of Jesus after his temptation, recorded only in John, 
gives in fuller detail than any other evangelist the Gali- 
lean ministry, and concludes the final scenes with the ap- 
pearance of the risen Christ in Galilee and omits the 
ascension. 


2. Tur GospreL ACCORDING TO MARK 


(1) Authorship. Mark first appears in the New Testa- 
ment in connection with the release by an angel of Peter 
from prison in Jerusalem, when Peter went to ‘‘the house 
of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark”’ 
(Acts 12:12). It would appear that his mother owned 
the house and was a woman of some means. Mark then 
became associated with Paul who took him with him as a 
helper on his first missionary journey. 

The earliest testimony to his authorship of the Second 
Gospel is again that of Papias writing about 125 A. D. 
‘‘Mark,’’ he says, ‘‘having become the interpreter of 
Peter, wrote down accurately everything that he remem- 
bered, without, however, recording in order what was 
either said or done by Christ. For neither did he hear 
the Lord, nor did he follow him; but afterwards, as I 
said (attended) Peter, who adapted his instructions to 
the needs (of his hearers) but had no design of giving a 
connected account of the Lord’s oracles. So then Mark 
made no mistake, while he thus wrote down some things 
as he remembered them; for he made it his one care not 
to omit anything that he heard, or to set down any false 
statement therein.’’ 

This statement that Mark wrote as the disciple of Peter 
is borne out by the fact that Peter is prominent in this 
Gospel, often in unimportant matters, especially as it 
becomes more specific in details when Peter appears upon 
the scene in the first chapter; and it bears the impress of 
Peter’s urgent spirit and direct rough speech. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 67 


Mark was also a traveling companion of Paul in his 
first missionary journey, and some critical readers think 
they discern something of the spirit and teaching of Paul 
in the Second Gospel. 

We have already seen reasons for dating this Gospel be- 
tween 55 and 60 A. D., and this date is borne out by its 
contents, especially by the fact that it was evidently writ- 
ten before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. 

(2) Characteristics. Mark’s immediate purpose is to 
set forth Jesus as the Son of God, the note he strikes in 
the very first verse: ‘‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God.’’ In Matthew Jesus is the mighty 
Speaker, but in Mark he is the mighty Doer. On every 
page he is doing great deeds that show forth his divine 
power and Saviourhood. It does not appear that Mark 
is writing specially for either Jews or Gentiles, but is 
proclaiming to all believers that Jesus is mighty to save. 
He appeals especially to men of action. 

Mark’s Gospel is marked by characteristics that sharply 
distinguish it from the others. It is realistic in the direct 
vision and apprehension of the facts of the life of Jesus 
and graphic in its style. Mark sees and says things just 
as they are without any effort or thought of smoothing 
them off or toning them down. A rapid reading of the 
book gives one a vivid impression of this feature. He 
calls Jesus a ‘‘carpenter,’’ has the people on first hear- 
ing him at Capernaum exclaim, ‘‘A new teaching!’’ and 
tells how his family declare of him, ‘‘He is beside him- 
self,’? or is crazy. These realistic touches appear on 
every page. 

There is also an urgency in the book that is character- 
istic. The words ‘‘straightway’’ and ‘‘immediately’’ 
occur more than forty times and indicate the rapidity 
and eagerness with which Jesus passes and almost rushes 
from one point or work to another. Once while hasten- 
ing to one work of mercy he dropped another by the way 
(chapter 5). This urgeney is characteristic of the im- 
pulsive nature of Peter and reflects his spirit in the nar- 
rative. 

The frequent use of the present tense in the narrative is 
another mark of its realistic style, the author telling 


68 


THE MAKING AND MEANING 


events as though they were present before him as he 


writes. 


These characteristics are indications of the historicity of 
the book as being inimitable, and also accord with its being 
the earliest Gospel written under fresh knowledge and 
vision of the facts before reflection and tradition had be- 
gun to pale their colors and dim their sharp outlines. 
They are indications that Mark saw through the eyes and 
wrote with the hand of Peter. 


(3) 


Contents: 


PART I: THe THirty Sent YEARS, omitted. 


PART II: Tue Pusric Ministry, 1-16. 


I. First YEAR: The Early Judean Ministry, 1: 1-18. 


L, 
2. 


3. 


The ministry of John the Baptist, 1:1-8. 
The baptism of Jesus, 1: 9-11. 
The temptation of Jesus, 1: 12-13. 


II. Seconp YEAR: The Galilean Ministry, 1: 14-9. 


uf 


fea 
SOMND OP ob 


if 
a 


Call of the Four and itinerant preaching in Galilee, 
1: 16-45 


. Miracles and controversies, 2:1-3:12. 
. Calling the Twelve, 3: 13-19. 
. Warnings to scribes and Pharisees, 3: 19-30. 


The true kindred of Jesus, 3: 31-35. 
Many parables and miracles, 4-5: 43. 


. Second rejection at Nazareth, 6: 1-6. 


The mission of the Twelve, 6: 7-138. 


. Death of John the Baptist, 6: 14-29. 

. The feeding of the five thousand, 6: 30-46. 

. Break with the Pharisees on eating, 7: 1-23. 
12, 
. Feeding the four thousand, 8: 1-9. 

. Renewed controversy with the Pharisees, 8: 10-21. 

. Retirement to the north: Peter’s confession, 8 : 27-80. 
. The transfiguration, 9: 2-29. 

. Discourse on humility, 9:33-50. 


Journey to the region of Tyre and return, 7: 24-80, 


(fl. THirp YEAR: The Later Judean Ministry, 10-16. 


1. 
. Various teachings, 10: 2-81. 


© 00 NI od CHB CO DD 


food 
—) 


Arrival in Judea, 10:1. 


Jesus foretells his death, 10: 32-84. 


. Incidents on the way to Jerusalem, 10: 35-52. 
. Anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany, 14:8-9, 


The triumphal entry to Jerusalem, 11: 1-11. 
Second cleansing of the Temple, 11: 15-19. 


. Questions and controversies, 11: 27-12: 40. 
- Discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, 13. 
. The conspiracy between the chief priests and Judas, 


14: 1-11. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 69 


11. The Last Supper, 14: 12-26. 

12. Christ’s farewell discourses, 14: 27-81. 
13. Gethsemane, 14: 32-42. 

14. Betrayal and arrest, 14: 48-52. 

15. The trial, 14: 53-15: 20. 

16. The crucifixion, 15: 21-41. 

17. The burial, 15: 42-47. 

18. The resurrection, 16: 1-11. 

19. The appearances, 16: 9-20. 


Mark in the oldest existing manuscript breaks off 
abruptly in the middle of a sentence in verse 8 of the last 
chapter: ‘‘for they were afraid of,’’ leaving the meaning 
incomplete. The ending to the chapter found in our ver- 
sions was supplied by a later hand and is no part of the 
genuine Gospel. Probably the end of the roll of the manu- 
script was worn or broken off; and as the Gospel also be- 
gins abruptly without any account of the birth of Jesus it 
has been suggested that the first end of the manuscript roll 
may also have been worn or torn off and thus the original 
Mark may have been mutilated at both ends. 


3. THE GospeL AccorRDING TO LUKE 

(1) Authorship. Luke is directly mentioned only twice 
in the New Testament, both times as the companion of 
Paul: ‘‘Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet 
you’’ (Col. 4:14). ‘‘Only Luke is with me’’ (II Tim. 
4:11). But he appears in Acts 16:10 as one of Paul’s 
companions in his second missionary journey: ‘‘ And after 
that he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored 
to go into Macedonia.’’ There are four of these ‘‘we 
passages’’ (16:10-18, 20:5-16, 21:1-18, 27:1—28:16) that 
indicate the presence of Luke with Paul, so that he is 
writing Paul’s biography from personal knowledge. 

Uniform ancient tradition ascribes the Third Gospel to 
Luke. Irenzus, writing about 180 A. D., says, ‘‘Luke, the 
companion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached 
by him,’’ and Justin Martyr, writing thirty years earlier, 
quotes from the book. We have already fixed its date at 
near 60 A. D. 

(2) Purpose and Characteristics. Luke addressed his 
Gospel to a single individual, the ‘‘most excellent Theo- 
philus,’’ a Roman knight or man of rank, to whom he 


70 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


subsequently addressed the Acts (1:1). It was therefore 
written for a Gentile and no doubt was intended through 
him to reach a wide circle of Gentile readers. Yet this 
Gospel is not adapted specially to any particular class, 
but is suited to all readers and has in view its declared 
purpose that Theophilus ‘‘might know the certainty of 
those things’’ that are set forth in it. 

The Gospel of Luke, pronounced by Renan ‘‘the most 
beautiful book ever written,’’ having for its author a 
physician was composed by a professional scholar and is 
the most literary of the Gospels in style and finish and, in 
fact, is the most literary*book in the New Testament with 
the possible exception of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The 
Greek is smooth and the construction is that of an artistic 
biography. 

The Gospel is characterized by the spirit of humane- 
ness, as befits the nature and work of a physician. The 
author notes that they were ‘‘gracious words’’ that pro- 
ceeded from the mouth of Jesus at Nazareth (4:22), and 
graciousness marks his narrative all the way through. He 
alone gives us such beautiful humanitarian parables as 
the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and he very 
noticeably smooths down the faults of the disciples, as is 
seen in his omitting the rebuke to Peter, ‘‘Get thee be- 
hind me.’’ He notes the specific features of disease, such 
as ‘‘a great fever’’ (4:38), and ‘‘full of leprosy’’ (5:12), 
and he notes “‘the only son’’ (7:12), and an ‘‘only child”’ 
(9:38). Many are the little touches that show the quick 
eye and tender hand and sympathetic heart of ‘‘the be- 
loved physician.’? Thus the human charm and healing 
ministry of Jesus shine out in special splendor upon his 
pages. 

(3) The Preface. <A specially important part of Luke’s 
Gospel is his preface. The author of a book in his pref- 
ace usually gives us information about it that is inter- 
esting and helps us to understand it and yet does not fall 
within the book itself, such as telling us his purpose in 
writing it and indicating his sources and his competence 
for his task. This is just what Luke does; and his pre- 
face is so valuable that we here reproduce it from Mof- 
fatt’s New Translation that will give us a more literal and 
a fresher view of it: 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 71 


Inasmuch as a number of writers have essayed to draw up a 
narrative of the established facts in our religion exactly as these 
have been handed down to us by the original eyewitnesses who 
were in the service of the Gospel Message, and inasmuch as I 
have gone carefully over them all myself from the very beginning, 
I have decided, O Theophilus, to write them out in order for your 
excellency, to let you know the Solid truth of what you have been 
taught, 


This brief preface, worth many times its weight in gold, 
is one of the most important historical documents in the 
Bible and in all the literature of the world. It lets us 
see right into the heart of the process by which Luke pre- 
pared the materials for and wrote his Gospel. It takes 
us into his literary workshop and shows us the author at 
work. And we find there, no romancer or mere repeater 
of rumors and traditions and legends coming down from a 
distant day, but a careful and conscientious historian pro- 
ceeding in accordance with the laws of trustworthy histori- 
eal investigation and composition. 

Luke first collected his data and documents that were 
close to the facts, having been written by those who had 
received them from eyewitnesses, and there were many 
such sketches which he had in hand. This gives us a 
elimpse of the Gospels before our Gospels, many of which 
have long since perished. However, we know of one of 
them, for we have seen that Luke and Matthew used not 
only Mark but also another document now known as Q. 

Having collected his data Luke says, ‘‘I have gone eare- 
fully over them all myself from the beginning’’: that is, 
he sifted and digested his data and put them through the 
whole process of systematic examination. He did not sim- 
ply copy them, but he tested them and reduced them to 
the consistency of truth. 

He then set about writing his narrative in a methodical 
form, producing an orderly and logical history or biog- 
raphy. And all this was done that his noble friend might 
‘‘know the solid truth of what you have been taught.’’ 
He had a practical purpose in view and with him truth 
was in order to goodness. 

Luke thus based his Gospel on contemporary witnesses 
and documents after the manner of the most approved 
methods of the modern scientific historian. This is the 
immense value of this preface, and though all the Gos- 


72 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


pels were dated very much later yet would these four in- 
troductory verses assure us that the author of the Third 
Gospel had first-hand documents and take us back to 
eyewitnesses of these tremendous events. 

(4) Contents. Luke has considerable material peculiar 
to himself, including such parables as the Good Samari- 
tan, Selfish Neighbor, Unjust Judge, Prodigal Son, Unjust 
Steward, Lazarus and Dives, and the Pharisee and Pub- 
lican. These parables and much other material peculiar 
to Luke are found in a long passage extending from 9:51 
to 18:14. The main portions of this Gospel can be fitted 
into our Outline as follows: 


THE PREFACE, 1:14. 


PART I: Tue Tuirty Sent Years, 1-2: 52. 
The genealogy, 3: 23-88. 
The annunciations of the births of John the Baptist and 
of Jesus, 1: 5-88. 
. The birth at Bethlehem, 2: 1-2: 89. 
. The quiet years at Nazareth, 2: 389-52. 


moo Np 


PART II: THe Pustuic MINistry, 3-28. 
I, First YeAar: The Early Judean Ministry, 3-4: 13. 
1. The ministry of John the Baptist, 3: 1-20. 
2. The baptism of Jesus, 3: 21-23. 
3. The temptation of Jesus, 4: 1-13. 


II. SrEconp YEAR: The Galilean Ministry, 4: 14-9: 50. 
1, Departure from Judea and settlement at Capernaum, 
4:1-8, 31-41. 
2. Itinerant preaching in Galilee, 4: 42-44, 5: 12-16. 
3. Controversies with scribes and Pharisees, 5:17-6:11. 
4. Calling the Twelve, 6: 12-19, and Sermon on the Mount, 
6 : 20-49. 
5. John the Baptist’s last message, 7 : 18-35. 
6. Warnings to the scribes and Pharisees, 11: meagre 
7. The true kindred of Christ, 8: 19-21. 
8. Many parables, 8: 4-18. 
9. Many miracles, 8: 22-56. 
10. The mission of the Twelve, 9: 1-6. 
11. Death of John the Baptist, 9: 7-9. 
12. The feeding of the five thousand, 9:10-17. 
18. Peter’s confession, 9: 18-21. 
14. The transfiguration, 9: 28-43. 
15. Discourse on humility, 9: 46-50. 


III. Tuirp Year: The Later Judean Ministry, 9: 51-24, 
1. Arrival in Judea, 9:51. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 73 


2. The mission of the seventy, 10: 1-24. 

3. The Good Samaritan, 10: 25-37. 

4. Various discourses, 11: 1-138, 87-13:9. 

5. A woman healed on the Sabbath, 13: 10-21. 

6. Further discourses, 13: 22-14: 35. 

7. A series of parables, 15-17: 10. 

8. The coming of the kingdom, 17: 20-18:8. 

9. The Pharisee and the Publican, 18: 9-14. 

10. Jesus and children, 18: 15-17. 

11. The rich young ruler, 18: 18-30. 

12. Jesus foretells his death, 18: 18-80. 

13. Incidents at Jericho, 18: 35-19: 28. 

14, The triumphal entry, 19: 29-44. 

15. Second cleansing of the Temple, 19: 45-48. 

16. Questions and controversies, 20: 1-47. 

17. Discourse concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, 
21: 5-388. 

18. Conspiracy between the priests and Judas, 22: 1-6. 

19. The last supper, 22: 7-380. 

20. Christ’s farewell discourses, 22: 31-38. 

21. Gethsemane, 22: 39-46. 

22. Betrayal and arrest, 22: 47-53. 

23. The trial, 22: 54~23: 25. 

24. The crucifixion, 23: 26-49. 

25. The burial, 23: 50-56. 

26. The resurrection, 23 : 56-24: 12, 

27. The appearances, 24: 13-53. 


4, Tur GospreL ACCORDING TO JOHN 


(1) Authorship and Date. The book itself declares, of 
John, ‘‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’? (21:20), that 
‘*This is the disciple who testifieth of these things, and 
wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is 
true’? (21:24). The external evidence in favor of this 
authorship is good. Ireneus, writing about 180 A. D., 
bears witness to the fact that the Fourth Gospel was uni- 
versally received in the churches as the work of John; and 
he also tells us of hearing Polyearp, who was born in 70 
A. D. and was contemporary with John, when ‘‘he would 
describe his intercourse with John and the rest who had 
seen the Lord, and how he would relate his words,’’ and 
how Polyearp had ‘‘received them from eyewitnesses of 
the life of the Word’’ (Logos). The internal evidence is 
also good as it shows that the author was a Palestinian 
Jew, intimate with Judea and Jerusalem and an eyewit- 
ness of events he is recording. Yet some scholars hold, on 
the ground of internal evidence, that the substance of the 


14 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Gospel is from John but that the actual writing was done 
by one of his disciples, perhaps John the Presbyter, an 
associate of John the Apostle in Ephesus. The trend of 
recent scholarship, however, is back to the Johannine au- 
thorship, and so competent a scholar as Dr. A. T. Robert- 
son declares, ‘‘I pin my faith to the conviction that the 
Apostle John is identical with the Beloved Disciple men- 
tioned in the Fourth Gospel as the author of the book.’’ 

The date of the Gospel, according to general agreement 
of scholars, falls near the end of the first century and may 
be about 100 A. D. Nearly all ancient tradition makes 
the death of John to have occurred at an advanced age 
in or near Ephesus at about this date. | 

(2) Purpose and Character. The purpose of this Gos- 
pel is clearly stated in 20: 31: ‘‘But these are written, that 
ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; 
and that believing ye might have life through his name.’’ 
The whole Gospel from the Prologue setting forth the 
eternal Sonship of Christ (1:1-18) to its closing verse is 
concentrated on this point that Jesus is the Son of God 
through whose name we are saved by faith. 

The outstanding characteristic of the Fourth Gospel is 
that it stands apart from the synoptics in contents and 
teaching and spirit. In general it describes the Judean 
ministry of Jesus in contrast with the synopties, which 
are chiefly concerned with the Galilean ministry, and it is 
also contrasted with them in that it is the subjective while 
they are the objective gospel. Any Harmony of the Gospels 
will show that the Fourth Gospel coincides with the synop- 
ties at comparatively few points, these with a single excep- 
tion (feeding the five thousand) being events in the closing 
weeks of the life of Christ. On the other hand there are 
large portions of material, such as the discourses with 
Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, that are found 
only in this Gospel. 

John stands in a very different relation to Jesus, as 
compared with the other evangelists, in that he was the 
most intimate disciple and personal friend of the Master 
and was able to report and interpret his most spiritual 
and vital teaching and reflect his spirit most fully. The 
characteristic words of his Gospel are light, life, truth, 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 79 


and Spirit. The Logos or Word is the light that becomes 
the hfe of men, and eternal life in the Fourth Gospel very 
largely takes the place of the Kingdom of God in the 
synoptics. ‘‘God is spirit’’ (4:24), together with ‘‘God 
is light’’ and ‘‘God is love’’ of his First Epistle (1:5 and 
4:24), is the sunlit summit of John’s teaching. 

A peculiarity of John’s Gospel is that he stands so 
close to and is so intimate with Jesus as his interpreter 
that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between what 
is the teaching of the Master and what is the comment 
and interpretation of the disciple. John is a philosopher 
and mystie and poet more than the practical Matthew and 
the objective Mark and the systematic Luke, so that his 
Gospel is in some degree tinctured and colored with his 
own subjective thought and spirit. The historical element 
is subordinated to the spiritual and the spiritual is deeply 
dyed with the mystical. For example, in the great dis- 
course with Nicodemus it is not clear where Jesus leaves 
off and John begins. Was it Jesus that uttered the won- 
derful saying, ‘‘God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that. whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life’’ (3:16), or was John 
so caught up into the report and spirit of the Master’s 
sublime eloquence that at this point his own soul took 
wings and was borne aloft to the height of this great 
utterance? At any rate, John takes us further into the 
heart of the mystic teaching of Jesus and immerses us 
more deeply in his spirit than do the synopties. 

The Fourth Gospel, being so much later than the synop- 
ties, is largely supplementary to them and supplies the 
theological and philosophical and spiritual interpretation 
of Jesus that in some degree may be due to long-con- 
tinued reflection and loving remembrance and deep medi- 
tation. It is therefore the most vital and precious of the 
Gospels and will ever nourish believers on the very Bread 
of life and reflect that Light that is the Life of the world. 

(3) Contents. As already explained the contents of the 
Fourth Gospel come into contact with the synopties at 
only a few points so that the list of its topics varies widely 
from that of the others; but we may fit them into our 
General Outline as follows: 


76 


THE MAKING AND MEANING 


THE PROLOGUE, 1:1-18 
PART I: Tue Tuirty SILENT YEARS, omitted. 
PART II: THE Pusric MINISTRY. 


I. First Year: The Early Judean Ministry, 1: 19-4: 42, 


6. 
7. 


1. The ministry of John the Baptist, 1: 19-34. 
2. The first disciples of Jesus, 1: 35-51. 

3: 
4 
5 


First miracle, 2: 1-11. 


. First cleansing of the Temple, 2: 138-22. 
. Discourse with Nicodemus, 2: 23-3: 21. 


The codperation of Jesus with John, 3: 23-3: 21. 
Discourse with the woman of Samaria, 4: 26-42. 


II. Seconp YEAR: The Galilean Ministry, 4: 48-8: 59. 
1. Departure from Judea and settlement in Galilee, 4: 48-45. 


2. 
3. 
4, 
5. 


6. 


Healing of the Nobleman’s son, 4: 46-54. 
Visit to Jerusalem to the feast, 5. 
Feeding of the five thousand, 6: 1-15. 
Jesus walking on the water, 6: 16-21. 
Discourse on the bread of life, 6: 22-71. 


III. Tuirp YEAR: The Later Judean Ministry, 7: 1-21: 25 


Se or Oe Bo 


. Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles and his discourses, 


7:1-8: 59. 
Healing of the man born blind, 9. 
The Good Shepherd, 10: 1-21. 
Jesus at the Feast of Dedication, 10: 2-42. 
The raising of Lazarus, 11: 1-46. 
Withdrawal to Ephraim, 11: 47-14. 


. Anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany, 11: 55-12:11. 
. The triumphal entry, 12: 12-19. 

. Incidents in Jerusalem, 12: 20-50. 

. The last supper, 13: 7-30. 

. Christ’s farewell discourses, 18: 31-17. 
. Gethsemane, 18:1. 

. Betrayal and arrest, 18: 2-11. 

. The trial, 18 :12-19: 16. 

. The crucifixion, 19: 17-37. 

. The burial, 19: 38-42. 

. The resurrection, 20: 1-18. 

. The appearances, 20; 19-21: 25. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES AND THE 
EPISTLES OF PAUL 


The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Paul belong 
together and might be designated as The Life and Letters 
of Paul. 


I. Tue Acts oF THE APOSTLES 


(1) Authorship and Date. The opening sentence of 
the Acts, beginning, ‘‘The former treatise have I made, 
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and 
teach,’’ is plain evidence that Luke is the author of the 
Acts as of the Third Gospel, and this conclusion is con- 
firmed by all the other evidence in the matter. The lit- 
erary style of the two books in the construction of sen- 
tences and the use of peculiar words and phrases indi- 
eates identical authorship, and from the earliest times the 
two books have been accepted as the work of Luke. 

We have already considered the question of its date 
and seen that in all probability Luke concluded the Acts 
before the death of Paul and that this places its date near 
62 A. D. 

(2) Purpose and Characteristics: As in his Gospel so 
in the Acts Luke indicates his purpose in his preface. He 
proposes to continue the narrative of ‘‘the former treatise,’ 
which contained ‘‘all that Jesus began both tu do and to 
teach until the day in which he was taken up’’ (1:1-2) and 
to follow the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus to his dis- 
ciples, ‘‘Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, 
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
parts of the earth’’ (1:8). 

The Acts is thus the continuation of Luke’s Gospel, the 
second volume of a work of which the Gospel is the first. 

7 


78 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


It is to take up the story of the mission of Christ in the 
world at the point of his departure from it and carry it 
on in widening circles from Jerusalem through Judea and 
Samaria to the very ends of the earth. It is thus the Acts 
of the ascended and glorified Christ continuing his work 
from heaven, as the Gospels are the Acts of Jesus fulfilling 
his mission on earth; or it is the Acts of the Holy Spirit, 
““whom,’’ Jesus promised, ‘‘the Father will send in my 
name’’ (John 14:26) to carry forward his work in the 
world; or it is the first history of the missionary church 
as it burst the narrow bounds of Judea and launched out 
upon the deep and set~its sails for all continents and 
islands of the sea. 

As it comes from the hand of Luke it is characterized 
by the same scholarly features that are found in his Gos- 
pel. It is systematic in its arrangement and evinces the 
Same care in the selection of the materials and in the com- 
position of the narrative. At points, even in minute mat- 
ters, where it alludes to dates and names and facts in the 
Roman Empire, it is found to be correct. This has been 
proved to be the case in some matters in which it was long 
supposed to be in error. 

Beginning at the point where Paul appears in the story 
as the chief character (chapter 9), the narrative drops out 
of view the work of the other Apostles and practically 
becomes the biography of Paul, with whom Luke traveled 
as a companion in some of his missionary journeys and 
work. 

Viewed as a work of history the Acts has high merit 
and stands the test of our modern historians. Says Philip 
Schaff, one of our most eminent church historians: ‘‘Ex- 
amine and compare the secular historians from Herodotus 
to Macaulay, and the church historians from Eusebius to 
Neander, and Luke need not fear a comparison. No his- 
tory of thirty years has ever been written so truthful and 
impartial, so important and interesting, so healthy in 
spirit, so aggressive and yet so genial, so cheering and so 
inspiring, so replete with lessons of wisdom and encour- 
agement for work in spreading the gospel of truth and 
peace, and yet withal so simple and modest, as the Acts 
of the Apostles. It is the best as well as the first manual 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 79 


of church history’’ (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 
PeDiiog). 

‘On the whole,’’ says Professor Kirsopp Lake, an ex- 
tremely radical critic, ‘‘and considering the character of 
of the book, Acts is a first-rate historical document, and 
singularly easy to understand, so far as the mere enu- 
meration of events is concerned’’ (The EKarlier Epistles of 
Ser Mule pele), 

The importance of the Acts as one of the early docu- 
ments of Christianity is very great as it shows the fate 
of the gospel, its inherent power and persistence and ex- 
pansion, after it was deprived of the personal presence of 
Christ and was left to make its own way in the world. It 
is an account of the most critical period and fateful crisis 
of Christianity when it faced the tremendous question of 
its relation to Judaism and was forced to determine 
whether it was to remain a Jewish sect or become a uni- 
versal faith and world religion. The whole future of 
our Christian faith was then perilously trembling in the 
balance. 

Luke gives us a vivid picture of this period as an eye- 
witness and shows us Christianity unloosing its swaddling 
elothes and freeing itself from Jewish strangulation and 
standing upon its own feet and setting forth on its world 
march. It is a magnificent spectacle we witness in these 
graphic pages and never can they lose their supreme inter- 
est for Christian readers. ‘‘Had it not come down to us,’’ 
says Dean Farrar, ‘‘there would have been a blank in our 
knowledge which searcely anything could have filled up. 
The origin of Christianity would have been an insoluble 
enigma.’’ 

And yet there are strange omissions and gaps in the 
book and at many points we wonder at the silence of the 
historian and wish he had told us more. We would like to 
have known more of the work and fate of the other Apos- 
tles, especially of Peter and John, and what became of 
Mary, the mother of our Lord. Epecially strange is the 
omission of any single allusion to any one of the Epistles 
of Paul, though Paul wrote some of them when Luke was 
with him. We are fortunate in having four Gospels that 
supplement one another, but we have only one history of 


80 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


this plastic and formative period of our Christian faith 
and organization of the Christian church. The silences 
of Scripture, however, may be as significant as its utter- 
ances. 

(3) Contents. The history narrated in the Acts extends 
from the ascension of Jesus, A. D. 29, to near the death 
of Paul in Rome, a period of about thirty-three years. The 
eontents of the Acts may be outlined as follows: 


I. THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM, 1-7. 

1. Events immediately following the ascension, 1. 
2. The day of Pentecost, 2. 
3. Preaching of the Apostles in Jerusalem, 3-4. 
4. The fate of, Ananias and Sapphira, 5. 
5. Appointment of deacons and preaching of Stephen, 6. 
6. Martyrdom of Stephen, 7-8: 4. 

II, SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL TO SAMARIA AND GAZA, 8. 
1. Preaching of Philip in Samaria, 8: 5-25. 
2. Philip at Gaza, 8: 26-40. 

III. SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL TO ANTIOCH AND EUROPE, 9-28. 
1. Conversion of Saul, 9: 1-81. 
2. Work of Peter, 9: 32-10: 48. 
3. Council at Jerusalem over receiving Gentiles, 11: 1-18. 
4. The gospel reaches Antioch, 11: 19-380. 
5. Persecution in Jerusalem, 12. 
6. Paul’s first missionary journey, 13-14. 
7. Council at Jerusalem over circumcision, 15-1: 35. 
8. Paul’s second missionary journey, 15: 36-18: 22, 
9. Paul’s third missionary journey, 18: 3-21: 16. 
10. Paul arrested at Jerusalem, 21: 17-23: 32. 
11. Paul taken to Cesarea, 23 : 33-26: 32. 
12, The voyage to Rome and shipwreck, 27. 
13. Paul in Rome, 28. 


Il. Tue Episturs or Pav 


(1) Authorship. Of the thirteen Epistles ascribed to 
Paul, the following ten, Romans, I and II Corinthians, 
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I and II 
Thessalonians, and Philemon, are from his hand by clear 
internal and external evidence and by general agreement 
of scholars. They purport to be written by him and bear 
his impress in contents and knowledge and style. They 
fit into their proper places in Luke’s narrative in the Acts, 
and we are as reasonably sure of Paul’s authorship of 
these letters as we are that Cicero wrote those that bear his 
name. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 81 


In the case of I and II Timothy and Titus, called ‘‘Pas- 
toral Enpistles’’ because they give directions’ to these 
young ministers relating to their pastoral work, there is 
difficulty in fitting I Timothy and Titus into Luke’s nar- 
rative of Paul’s labors. In I Timothy and Titus Paul is 
away from Rome and leaves Timothy in Ephesus (1:3) 
and Titus in Crete (1:5), and it is difficult to find places 
for these events in the Acts. II Timothy, however, falls 
into place, for Paul is again in Rome awaiting execution. 

This difficulty is largely cleared up by supposing that 
Paul was released from his first captivity in Rome and 
made a fourth missionary journey, during which he ad- 
dressed I Timothy and Titus to these helpers and was then 
again arrested and was in Rome when he wrote II Tim- 
othy. Some scholars adopt this solution, and others sup- 
pose that some disciple of Paul who had some fragments 
of his letters put them into their present form after his 
death. 

But there are serious difficulties in this latter view, and 
it seems better to take them as the letters of Paul and 
allow that there are incidental facts in the case unknown 
to us, which if they were known would clear the matter up. 
As to the vexed question why, if Paul made another mis- 
slonary journey, Luke did not tell about it in the Acts, the 
answer would be the same as to why he did not tell about 
Paul’s death. He told no more because he knew no more 
and he wrote the Acts before anything more had hap- 
pened. 

(2) Circumstances and Characteristics of the Epistles. 
We are not to suppose that these thirteen Epistles are all 
the letters Paul wrote. They are probably only a selection 
from his large correspondence which has been preserved 
and incorporated in the New Testament. Neither are we 
to suppose that Paul wrote these letters with any knowl- 
edge or thought that he was composing divinely inspired 
letters that would be thus preserved and read and studied 
through ages as Holy Scriptures. He wrote them as any 
one writes letters in his correspondence with friends, all 
unconsciously of the divine Providence that was guiding 
him and caring for these letters for our instruction and 
edification. Inspiration fulfils itself in many ways, and, 


82 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


like the wind, the divine breath bloweth where and how it 
listeth. 

They are all letters addressed to churches and individ- 
uals for practical purposes. Every one of them was oc- 
casioned by some special cause or condition that called for 
instruction or correction or advice from Paul. Their con- 
tents were thus adapted and addressed to local conditions 
and personal needs and are written in the free and direct 
and incidental method and style of personal correspond- 
ence. They almost wholly lack the structure and style of 
a systematic treatise, or of writings intended for general 
publication. 

Yet they are none the less but rather all the more val- 
uable on this account. They illustrate abstract principles 
in their concrete application, and this is one of the best 
ways of imparting such truth. They touch a large range 
and variety of topics both doctrinal and practical as they 
deal with the peculiar conditions of these first. Christian 
churches while they were plastic and involved in all the 
difficulties and dangers, factions and corruptions of their 
day, when Christianity was new and had not yet devel- 
oped forms and creeds and was especially subject to the 
environment of heathen customs and morals, temptations 
and persecutions. And all the way through Paul is the 
uncompromising defender and bold champion of the lib- 
erty of the gospel and the universality of the Christian 
faith against the claims and struggles of Judaism to con- 
strict Christianity with its own bondage and doom it as a 
Jewish sect. 

Paul was a born thinker and theologian and while deal- 
ing with these local and temporary conditions he was all 
unconsciously forging his,own Christian ideas and expe- 
rience into shape and use and working out the fundamen- 
tal principles and doctrines of the new faith and thus lay- 
ing the foundations of our Christian creeds and polities. 
Without imposing on us fixed and final forms he yet fur- 
nished us with the materials that are the substance of our 
formal faith today. 

These letters are characterized by Paul’s intellectual 
and emotional temper and spirit of independent thought 
and bold solution of problems and brave action. His pages 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 83 


are often so charged with thought and feeling that the 
words come tumbling from his pen in a tumultuous tor- 
rent, sometimes as broken or chaoticesentences that defy 
the rules of grammar and give infinite trouble to the 
commentators. Yet Paul the philosopher and theologian 
was also Paul the mystic and poet and his imagination 
could utter winged words and soar into rhythmic melody 
and beauty that are the praise and the charm of the ages, 
such as the immortal prose-poem in I Cor. 13. 

Paul was the first and greatest theologian of the Chris- 
tian church. He forged the simple gospel into a logical 
system that roots it in the brain as well as in the heart; 
he put bones into its flesh and rocks under its flowers and 
fruits. Such a work was necessary to give system and sta- 
bility to the gospel, without which ‘‘the sweet Galilean 
vision’’ might have melted into mist. 

(8) Chronology of Paul’s Life and Letters. In the 
Authorized Version the place of the writing of each of 
Paul’s Epistles is appended to it, but these notations were 
added to the manuscripts by later hands and are omitted 
in the Revised Version as no part of the original text. As 
a matter of fact, many of them are wrong. But internal 
evidence indicates with a considerable degree of assurance 
the places of the writing of the Epistles with several ex- 
ceptions. 

The following outline of events and dates in the life of 
Paul will enable us to locate most of his letters. These 
dates are the ones adopted by Harnack and some other 
scholars, and while they are subject to more or less uncer- 
tainty and difference of view among scholars, yet they 
may be taken as approximating‘ the truth. 

Paul was converted within a year after the death and 
resurrection of Christ, and this gives us the year 30 A. D. 
as the base line from which to start. After spending three 
years in retirement, Paul went up to Jerusalem in 33 and 
then proceeded to his home city of Tarsus in Asia Minor, 
where he appears to have remained about ten years when he 
came to Antioch. He went up to Jerusalem with the famine 
relief fund (Acts 11:27-380), and the known year of this 
famine fixes this visit in 44. Counting back fourteen 
years, according to his statement in Gal. 2:1, gives 30 A. D. 


84 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


as the year of Paul’s conversion. His first missionary 
journey from Antioch through Cyprus into Asia Minor 
and back was in 45, and after his return to Antioch and 
before the council at Jerusalem of Acts 15 in 47 he prob- 
ably wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. He set out on his 
second missionary journey in 47 and labored a year and a 
half in Corinth, 48, where he wrote I and II Thessalonians. 
He returned from Corinth by way of Jerusalem to Antioch, 
whence he started on the third missionary journey in 50 
and spent three years in Ephesus where he wrote I Corin- 
thians. Going by way of Macedonia, where he wrote II 
Corinthians, he went on to Corinth for a second visit 
where he wrote Romans, he again returned to Jerusalem, 
where he was arrested in 54, was held at Caesarea two 
years and arrived at Rome in 57, where he was in prison 
two years, 57-59, during which time he wrote Philippians, 
Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon. He was then prob- 
ably released and made a fourth missionary journey, dur- 
ing which he wrote I Timothy and Titus. Arrested a sec- 
ond time, he was again imprisoned in Rome, when he wrote 
II Timothy, his last extant letter, and probably perished 
in the Neronian persecution in 64 A. D. 

(4) Contents of the Epistles. As the Epistles usually 
do not follow any logical form, any analysis of their con- 
tents is more or less arbitrary, but their chief subjects and 
points can be stated. We shall follow the order in which 
they are found in the New Testament, which, as we have 
seen, is not the order in which they were written. 


RoMANS 

Paul wrote Romans as a letter to the church at Rome 
when he was at Corinth on his third missionary journey, 
as is indicated by his reference to Cenchrea (16:1), which 
was the seaport of that city. His thoughts had long been 
turning towards Rome as the metropolis and mighty hub 
of the Roman Empire and the world magnet which then 
attracted all eyes and to which all things in commerce and 
government and art and religion irresistibly gravitated. 
Already a Christian church existed at Rome composed of 
both Jews and Gentiles, and this Epistle was intended to 
prepare the way for his coming. Christianity had in the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 85 


start and has ever since had an affinity for great cities and 
seized them as strategic centers, and Paul felt that his 
work would be incomplete until he had helped to estab- 
lish the gospel in this central and supreme city in the 
world of his day. 

The Epistle partakes of the characteristics of his mind 
and heart, logical in its arguments yet urgent and at times 
tortuous in its spirit and style and culminating in great 
practical applications. More than any other book in the 
Bible it approaches being a treatise on systematic theology 
and works out the great doctrines of God’s sovereignty 
and grace. Its central word is righteousness, the right- 
eousness of God as expressed in the redemption of the 
world. It will ever stand as Paul’s masterpiece, and 
Coleridge declared it to be the ‘‘profoundest book in ex- 
istence.”’ 

Its chief points are: 


I. Salutation and plan, 1: 1-15, 
II. Doctrinal, 1: 16-11. 
1. Righteousness based on faith, 1: 16-8. 
2, Israel’s rejection of God’s righteousness, 9-11. 
III. Hortatory applications, 12-15: 18. 
IV. Personal notes, 15: 14-16. 


I aNp II CorInTHIANS 


The First Epistle to the church at Corinth was written 
by Paul while he was in Ephesus on his third journey. 
He had founded the church at Corinth on his second jour- 
ney, but much had happened in the several years of his 
absence and factions had arisen and moral laxness had 
developed and pagan customs had reasserted themselves. 
The general object of the first letter was to deal with these 
conditions and set them right. 

Soon after sending the First Epistle he heard the good 
news that the evils at Corinth had been corrected and he 
then dispatched, from Macedonia whither he had gone 
(II Cor. 2:12-13), the Second Epistle in which he ex- 
presses his joy at the happy turn of affairs. 

At this point we must consider the peculiar relations of 
First and Second Corinthians. We learn from 1 Cor. 5:9 
that Paul had written an earlier letter to the church at 
Corinth, which has been lost. In II Cor. 7:8-9 we further 


&6 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


discover that he had written still another letter to the 
Corinthians so severe in its condemnation that he was now 
sorry for it, and it is thought that this letter has also been 
lost. But chapters 10-13 of Second Corinthians are so 
sharp in their condemnation of Paul’s opponents at Cor- 
inth that some scholars think that these chapters cannot 
belong to Second Corinthians, which was sent as a letter 
of thanksgiving and joy, and that they are the lost letter 
of condemnation, which Paul regretted, which has become 
bound up with the Second Epistle. This is only a conjec- 
ture, but it would explain the incongruity of the last four 
chapters of the Second Kpistle with its main body and evi- 
dent purpose and spirit. It would not be strange that 
manuscript letters should thus get joined together. 
The chief points of I Corinthians are: 
I. Salutation and thanksgiving, 1: 1-9. 

II. Rebukes, 1-6. 

III. Answers to questions, 7-11. 

IV. Spiritual gifts, 12-13. 

V. The resurrection, 15, 

VI. Personal matters, 16. 

The chief points of II Corinthians are: 


I, Introduction, 1: 1-11. 

II. Thankfulness in retrospect, 1: 12-7. 
III. The collection for the poor at Jerusalem, 8-9. 
IV. Opponents at Corinth condemned, 10-13. 


GALATIANS 


The Epistle to the Galatians was addressed to ‘‘the 
churches of Galatia’’ (1:2), the churches in Asia Minor 
at Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe which 
Paul had founded on his first missionary journey (Acts 
13-14 :25). The oeeasion of the letter was the falling away 
of these churches from the liberty of the gospel into Ju- 
daism which caused Paul to ‘‘marvel that ye are so soon 
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ 
unto another gospel’’ (1:6). Judaizing teachers, probably 
from Jerusalem, had come in among them and were tell- 
ing the Gentile converts that they must be circumcised 
and obey the law of Moses, and some of them were on the 
point of accepting circumcision. This was all flat in the 
face of what Paul had taught them as to being free from 
the ceremonial law. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 87 


These Judaizers also attacked Paul himself, throwing 
doubt on the validity of his standing as an apostle. Paul 
defended himself against this charge by showing that he 
received the gospel, not from men, but by the revelation 
of Christ (1:11-12). He also tells in chapter 2 of a visit 
to Jerusalem in which he met with Peter and James and 
John where he stood for the ‘‘liberty which we have in 
Christ,’’ and as a result of this private conference ‘‘the 
gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as 
the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter’’ (1:7). 
Thus he stood on an equality with these apostles and the 
question of the liberty of the Gentile converts as being 
free from the ceremonial law was debated and settled. 

If the time of this visit could be determined it would 
help to settle the time of the writing of this Epistle. 
There was a council held at Jerusalem to decide whether 
the Judaistic ceremonies were to be imposed on the Gentile 
converts, and a decree was issued to be delivered to these 
ehurches that they were not subject to the burdens of the 
Mosaic law (Acts 15). Does the visit of Gal. 2 refer to 
this council of Acts 15? It would seem that it cannot do 
so, for if it did we would expect to find Paul using this 
decree in his letter to the Galatians to sustain and prove 
his point as to their freedom from the law. But he is silent 
as to any such council and decree, and it is therefore held 
by many scholars that Gal. 2 refers to a visit to Jerusalem 
earlier than the council of Acts 15, possibly to the famine 
relief visit mentioned in Acts 11:30 or to some unmen- 
tioned visit. This view, which was held by Calvin, has the 
powerful support of Ramsay and other scholars. 

If this was the case, then the Epistle to the Galatians 
was written between the return from the first missionary 
journey and the second journey, probably at Antioch. 
This view is confirmed by the fact that Paul did deliver 
the decree to the Galatian churches on his second jour- 
ney (Acts 16:4), showing that he did not have this de- 
cree when he wrote his letter to them. This is at least a 
probable solution of this problem, but other scholars do 
not accept it and date the Epistle after the second jour- 
ney, and some think it was probably written at Ephesus 
when Paul was there on his third journey. 


88 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


If the Epistle was written at Antioch between the first 
and second visits to these churches, then Galatians is the 
earliest of the New Testament books, and with the first 
scratch of Paul’s pen on the parchment of this Epistle in- 
spiration, which had been hushed four hundred years since 
Malachi, broke its silence and the New Testament began 
to be written. 

The main body of the Epistle is an impetuous and im- 
passioned argument and plea against the bondage of the 
law which was being forced on the Gentile converts and 
for the liberty of believers in Christ. ‘‘O foolish Gala- 
tians, who hath bewitched you . . .? Having begun in 
the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?’’ (3:1, 
3). Paul felt that if these Galatian churches of his were 
led away into Judaism his work would be wrecked, and 
hence he fights as for the life of his children and for his 
own life in defending the liberty of the gospel and salva- 
tion by faith alone. 

The main points of the letter are: 


I. Introduction, 1: 1-10. 

II. Paul’s defence of himself, 1:11-2: 21. 
III. Freedom from the law and Salvation by faith, 3-5. 
IV. Exhortations to the Christian life, 6. 


EPHESIANS 


Paul spent three years on his third missionary journey 
in Ephesus (Acts 19) and founded a church there. The 
letter to this church was writen at Rome, as were also 
Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, these four being 
known as ‘‘the Epistles of the imprisonment.”’ 

While it is said in 1:1 to be addressed to the saints ‘‘in 
Ephesus,’’ yet these words are not in some of the earliest 
and best manuscripts. If the letter was specially ad- 
dressed to this church it is strange that it contains no 
personal greetings, as Paul’s letters nearly always do, 
and it is still stranger that he speaks as if their knowledge 
of his ministry were only hearsay (3:2-4) and of his 
knowledge of them as being of a similar character (1:15). 

It is therefore thought that this Epistle was a general 
letter to be circulated among all the churches in the region 
of Ephesus and this would explain these characteristics. 

It is a letter of general Christian doctrine and guidance 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 89 


and comfort. No particular trouble has arisen to call for 
correction. The Judaistic controversy has been settled 
and the churches are in a state of normal peace and growth. 
Paul himself has quieted down and writes less impetuously 
and pugnaciously, and his style has grown calmer and 
smoother. He had won his case and established the gospel 
on the sure foundation of liberty and faith in Christ. 
This Epistle is not, therefore, a battle cry, as were his 
earlier letters, but moves in the serener region of faith 
and faithfulness and of growth in the knowledge and grace 
of Christ. The emancipator of Galatians has now become 
the spiritualizer of Ephesians. 
Its main points may be outlined as follows: 
I. Salutation and thanksgiving, 1. 
II. The privileges and duties of the Christian life, 2. 
III. How Paul obtained his knowledge of the gospel and 


his prayer for his readers, 3. 
IV, Practical exhortations, 4-6. 


PHILIPPIANS 


The church at Philippi was the first Christian church in 
Europe and was founded by Paul on his second mission- 
ary journey after he had crossed at Troas from Asia to 
Europe (Acts 16: 11-40). 

The converts in this church were specially dear to Paul 
as he was to them. Knowing of his imprisonment in Rome 
they made up a contribution or donation which they sent 
to him by one of their members, Epaphroditus. This 
messenger fell ill in Rome and Paul nursed him through 
the disease and then sent him back to Philippi bearing 
this letter to his friends at that place (2:25-30). It is 
evident that Paul is in prison in Rome from various allu- 
sions in the letter, such as ‘‘the palace’’ or ‘‘preetorian 
guard’? (1:13) and ‘‘Cesar’s household’’ (4:22). 
Though in prison yet he is expecting release (2:24), and 
this rather favors the view that he was released and en- 
gaged in further missionary labors and was then impris- 
oned a second time before his execution, thus leaving room 
for the pastoral Epistles, Titus, and I and II Timothy. 

Paul writes to the Philippians to cheer them in view 
of their despondency over his imprisonment, to express 
his warm appreciation of their gift, to warn them against 


90 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


false teaching, and to counsel them to cultivate and exer- 
cise the Christian graces. 
Its main topics are as follows: 


I. Salutation and thanksgiving, 1: 12-30. 

II. Statement as to Paul’s condition, 1: 12-80. 
III. Exhortations, 2: 1-18. 

IV. Paul’s plans for the future, 2: 19-30. 

VY. Final exhortations, 4. 


CoLOSssIANS 


The church at Colosse was not founded or ever visited 
by Paul, but may have been established by some of his 
converts from the city of Ephesus which lay to the west. 
Paul’s Epistle to this church was written at Rome and 
was sent by Tychicus (4:7), who also carried the Epistle 
to the Ephesians (6:21). Onesimus was also along with 
Tychicus with his letter to Philemon (Col. 4:9). 

Serious trouble was brewing in the Colossian church 
calling for a special letter from Paul in addition to the 
circular letter to the Ephesian and other churches. 
Judaizers were at work in this church (2:10-17), but 
along with these reversions to Mosaic ceremonies were 
mixed some elements of pagan philosophy, such as the 
worship of angels (2:8, 18) and other supernatural be- 
ings and also a tendency to extreme asceticism (2: 20-23). 

Paul fheets these errors by emphasizing the liberty which 
is in Christ (2:16-17; 3:10-11) and especially by exalt- 
ing Christ to equality with God (2:9) and showing that 
he is the head of the creation in whom all things consist 
or hold together (1:15-19). Thus Paul leaves no room 
for pagan powers as objects of worship and enthrones 
Christ in his immanent relation to the church and to the 
universe. In no other book of Scripture is the person of 
Christ so clearly set forth, and his divine rank and power 
more surely asserted and established. 

The outline of the Epistle is as follows: 


I. Salutation and thanksgiving, 1: 1-15. 
II, The supremacy of Christ, 1: 16-20. 
III. Warnings against false teachings, 2. 
IV. Exhortations, 3-4. 


I and II THESSALONIANS 
Thessalonica was the second city in Europe where Paul 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 91 


founded a church (Acts 17:1-9). Here the Jews stirred 
up a tumult against him and he thought it advisable to 
leave, passing on to Berea and Athens and then to Corinth. 
He kept in communication with his friends at Thessa- 
lonica through Silas and Timothy (Acts 18:5) and heard 
of their steadfastness in the midst of continued persecu- 
tion; and this good news moved him to write his first 
letter to them which is overflowing with thankfulness and 
joy at their Christian faithfulness so that from them 
‘‘sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia 
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward 
is spread abroad’’ (1:8). 

In the course of his letter he introduces a passage on 
the final coming of the Lord (4:13-18) in which he tells 
them that they are not to sorrow over their dead as those 
who have no hope, for they that sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him and those who are alive at the coming of 
the Lord shall have no precedence over them which are 
already fallen asleep. 

This passage, instead of comforting the Thessalonians, 
had the unexpected and unhappy effect of creating dis- 
sension and alarm, as the matter of the final coming of 
the Lord has so often done to this day. It was seized upon 
by some of the Thessalonians and made to mean that the 
coming of the Lord was already impending and might 
happen at any moment, and this was greatly exciting and 
dividing the church. 

To correct this erroneous view Paul hastened to write his 
Seeond Epistle to the Thessalonians in which he expressly 
stated that ‘‘that day shall not come’’ until certain other 
events come to pass, and he mentions a falling away from 
the faith and the revelation of the ‘‘man of sin’’ (2:1-12), 
events which appear to be yet in the future. 

This troublesome question and Paul’s solution of it illus- 
trates his skill in meeting emergencies and solving diffi- 
eulties; and it also shows how the prevailing Jewish apoc- 
alyptie hope of the coming of the Lord in a cosmic ecatas- 
trophe, that was attended with such alarm and practical 
evil consequences, was by him reduced to sanity and turned 
to orderly living. More and more in his Epistles the apoc- 
alyptie catastrophe kingdom becomes a spiritual reign 


92 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


of God in the hearts of believers which is to grow through 
the ages. 

Thus early was Scripture misunderstood and turned to 
controversy and dissension and dangerous misinterpreta- 
tion and perversion and uses, a fate that has attended it 
through all the Christian centuries and is still disturbing 
and dividing the church. 

According to the scheme here adopted the two Epistles 
to the Thessalonians were the second and third letters 
written by Paul, Galatians being the first. 

Outline of I Thessalonians: 

I. Paul’s thankfulness, 1. 
II. Paul’s defence of himself, 2-3. 
III. Exhortations, 4: 1-12. 
IV. The coming of the Lord, 4: 18-5: 11, 
V. Final Words, 5: 12-28. 
Outline of II Thessalonians: 


I. Salutations and thanksgiving, 1. 
II. The coming of the Lord, 2. 
III. Exhortations, 3. 


IT and II Timotuy 


As we have already seen there is difficulty in inserting 
the Pastoral Epistles, I and II Timothy and Titus, in the 
narrative of Paul’s life in the Acts, and therefore they 
ean be best accounted for by supposing that Paul was 
released from his first imprisonment and did further mis- 
sionary work, during which he wrote I Timothy and Titus, 
and that he was arrested and imprisoned a second time, 
during which he wrote II Timothy. Early tradition sup- 
ports this view. 

In I Timothy we learn that Paul had urged Timothy to 
remain in Ephesus when he himself went into Macedonia 
(1:3). Just where Paul was when he wrote the letter 
eannot be determined. He is chiefly concerned in his first 
letter to his disciple with two things: erroneous teaching 
and church government. The church at Ephesus, as was 
the case with all these early churches, was constantly ex- 
posed to false teachers (1:3), and their doctrines were 
generally some form of Judaism (1: 4-8; 4:3) or of pagan 
philosophy (6:20). These converts, being mostly Gen- 
tiles, were greatly disturbed by claims that they must 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 93 


obey the Mosaic law; and that ancient world was rife 
with many religions and philosophies which were vain 
speculations as to strange forms of knowledge (QGnosti- 
cism) or as to the evil nature of the material world or 
as to the nature of angels and the spirit world. Paul is 
guarding Timothy and the church under his care against 
these dangers. 

These early churches were also developing forms of 
organization or government with officers, such as elders 
and deacons. Paul did not himself institute any of these 
offices, but they grew up and were adopted as they were 
needed, as in the case of deacons in the church at Jerusa- 
lem (Acts 6:1-6). Paul, however, had much to say about 
the selection and character and conduct of these officers 
(3:1-13). Interspersed among these warnings and direc- 
tions and other practical matters are many passages in 
which Paul rises to noble heights of doctrinal and spir- 
itual eloquence, as in 6: 15-16. 
| In II Timothy Paul is again in prison in Rome and 
under the very shadow of his execution. He is not now 
coneerned with doctrinal errors and points of church 
polity but has passed into the state of mind in which he 
feels that his work is done and he is only waiting to be 
offered (4:6-8). His second letter therefore abounds in 
admonitions to Timothy to be faithful in doctrine and life 
(2:1-26), and he is anxious and urgent that his beloved 
disciple would hasten to come to him (4:9-15). The vet- 
eran soldier who has fought so many battles with un- 
wearied energy and undaunted bravery is now spent and 
faint and longs for companionship and comfort. And yet 
his faith is undimmed and in the very presence of the 
tragic end his spirit rises to its noblest height of 
courage and eloquence in his final note of victory (4: 7-8). 


Outline of I Timothy: 


I. Salutation, 1: 1-2. 
II. Personal exhortations to Timothy, 1: 3-20. 
III. Exhortations to prayer and as to women keeping 
silence in church, 2, 
IV. Directions as to elders, deacons and widows, 3: 1-16, 
5 + 1-25. 
V. Doctrinal injunctions, 4. 
VI. Further exhortations, 6. 


94 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Outline of II Timothy: 


I. Salutation, 1: 1-2. 
II. Personal exhortations to Timothy, 1: 3-4: 8. 
III. Personal messages, 4: 9-22. 


TITUS 


The Epistle to Titus closely parallels I Timothy in that 
the same doctrinal errors and problems of church gov- 
ernment are dealt with in both letters. Paul had left Titus 
at Crete (1:5), just when cannot be determined, and now 
sends him instructions as to his work and duties among 
the churches on that island. False teaching by ‘‘vain 
talkers, specially they of the cireumcision’’ (1:10), had 
appeared among these churches, and Titus was directed 
to ‘‘ordain elders in every city’’ (1:5), and specific di- 
rections were given him as to these officers. Thus the work 
of Timothy in Ephesus and the work of Titus in Crete are 
very similar, and hence the contents of the two letters, 
probably written near the same time, are similar in con- 
tents and teaching. 


Outline of Titus: 


I. Salutation, 1: 1-4. 

II. Directions as to elders, 1: 5-16. 
III. Admonitions as to the daily life of believers, 2-3: 3. 
IV. Doctrinal instructions, 3: 4-11 

V. Personal matters, 5: 12-15. 


PHILEMON 


This letter is the gem among Paul’s Epistles and is one 
of the most beautiful as well as one of the most pro- 
foundly significant things in the Bible. Onesimus was 
a slave who had probably robbed and then run away from 
his master, Philemon, in Colosse, and turned up in Rome, 
the whirlpool towards which all the flotsam and jetsam 
of the world then drifted. Here Paul found him and 
converted him and became dearly attached to him. 

The problem now arose, What was to be done with 
the convert who was still the legal slave of his master? 
There was no hesitation on this point on the part of either 
Paul or Onesimus. Paul sent the slave back to his mas- 
ter with this little letter. He greets Philemon as ‘‘our 
dearly beloved brother’’ and thanks God for his Christian 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 95 


love and faith, appeals to him as ‘‘Paul the aged,’’ for 
he was in prison for the last time, and beseeches him on 
behalf of ‘‘my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my 
bonds,’’ and begs his master to ‘‘receive him’’ ‘‘not now 
as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.’’ 
He offers to make good and pay out of his own pocket any 
loss which Philemon may have sustained through Onesi- 
mus, and reminds him how much he owes Paul and deli- 
‘eately hints at the emancipation of Onesimus, ‘‘ knowing 
that thou wilt also do more than I say.’’ Thus graciously 
did Paul negotiate this ticklish business with his friend 
Philemon and restore the slave to his master, but under 
new conditions in which the old relation of ownership 
was transformed and transfigured into Christian brother- 
hood. 

Why did Paul not himself free the slave and demand 
his emancipation from the Christian master? Because 
the day for this had not yet come. Slavery was then so 
deeply rooted in law and custom and social ideas that it 
could not be suddenly eradicated by violent means. Only 
time could work such changes in the mental and moral cli- 
mate of the world that this old evil could be abolished. 

But Paul did breathe a spirit through this letter into 
this relation which in time was a silent but powerful in- 
fluence in abolishing it. In fact this lttle letter put a 
charge of moral dynamite under the institution of slav- 
ery which did blow it out of the world; or it diffused 
through the atmosphere of civilization a spirit of human- 
ity and brotherhood which in the course of the Christian 
centuries dissolved the fetters of slavery as the balmy 
breath of the spring melts the icy bonds of winter. Verily 
the hand of Paul in penning this brief letter reached 
through the ages and helped to write, along with the hand 
of Lincoln, the American Emancipation Proclamation. 

Outline of Philemon: 

I, Salutation and thanksgiving, 1-7. 
II. Appeals to Philemon, 8-21, 
III. Personal matters, 22-25. 

(5) Review of the Epistles. As we review the letters 
of Paul as a whole we see that they form his autobiog- 
raphy and reflect the many-sided, variously-colored aspects 


96 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


of his life. They are full of the city and market-place 
and sea, of the Roman theater and games, of all the re- 
ligious ideas and controversies of his day, and of all the 
storm and stress of his picturesque career. Hebrew re- 
ligion and Greek thought and Roman life are interwoven 
throughout their entire fabric. They are Paul as painted 
by himself, and no other life in the Roman Empire of his 
day stands out in such intimate and lifelike portraiture 
and realistic colors. 

There is plainly in them a progression of ideas and 
spirit. In general this progress is from the outer to the 
inner, from the objective and ceremonial to the subjective 
and spiritual, from confroversy to conciliation, from logic 
to life, from the external apocalyptic kingdom in the 
world to the inner reign of God in the heart, from theol- 
ogy to religion, from argument with others to meditation 
in himself, from factionalism to fellowship, from tumult 
to calm, from storm to serenity, and from passion to 
peace. 

The letters begin with the battle-ery and trumpet-blast 
of Galatians and close with the quiet admonitions and 
affectionate endearments of II Timothy. At first Paul 
is the aggressive emancipator as he stands up for his Gen- 
tile converts and dares to declare, ‘‘There is no difference 
between the Jew and the Greek’’; then he is the conciliator 
as he harmonizes parties and factions in his churches; 
then in Romans he is the systematizer of doctrinal theol- 
ogy; in Ephesians he is a spiritualizer as he penetrates 
and fills doctrine and church life with the vital breath of 
the spirit; in Colossians he is a meditative and mystic 
philosopher as he deeply reflects upon the cosmic Christ 
as the immanent principle of the universe by whom all 
things consist and reaches conclusions that are profoundly 
akin to modern philosophical views of the universe; as a 
mystic he loses himself in the life that is hid with Christ 
in God; he is a philanthropist in Philemon in which he 
writes only a few words that yet put dynamite under the 
institution of slavery and helped to blow it out of the 
world; finally he is ‘‘Paul the aged’’ writing farewell 
words with a fettered and weary hand in which he de- 
clares that he is ready to be offered and is calmly waiting 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 97 


for the sure stroke of a Roman sword. Thus the stream, 
that at first leaped forth as a raging mountain torrent and 
then ran a swift course, at length slowed down into a calm 
current and finally broadened out and silently mingled in 
the immeasurable sea. 

There is one strange and startling omission in these 
letters: the life and teaching of Jesus. Not a parable or 
an utterance or a miracle or a deed of Jesus recorded in 
the Gospels, save the glorious exception of his resurreec- 
tion, appears in the Epistles of Paul. He must have had 
knowledge of these things that are so precious to us, but 
he disregarded them as not pertaining to his purpose. The 
human Jesus becomes invisible in the life of the glorified 
Christ. It was the cross that absorbed the soul of Paul, 
and the risen Christ that filled the whole field of his vision. 
Hardly ever is Christ quoted, but his person is adored; 
his sayings are scarcely mentioned, but Christ himself is 
all in all. 

It. is because he is so many-sided that men of all theo- 
logical views and emotional temperaments find support in 
Paul. Roman Catholic and Protestant, Calvinist and Ar- 
minian, conservative and liberal, theologian and mystic, 
philosopher and poet, all lay claim to Paul and ean find 
in his letters apt texts to support their claims. Preacher 
and pioneer, orator and man of letters, logical thinker 
and mystical dreamer, a poet who could write a lovely 
lyric that is hardly surpassed in all literature and yet a 
man of practical action and daring adventure who could 
write down a catalogue of appalling hardships (II Cor. 
11: 23-28), he poured his complex and rich nature and 
varied life into his Epistles so that they are among the 
most precious treasures of the New Testament and are the 
most valuable and vital letters in the literature of the 
world. 

We conclude our review of Paul’s Epistles with an 
evaluation of them by Professor Francis G. Peabody in 
his recent volume on The Apostle Paul and the Modern 
World, page 126: ‘‘In short, the letters of Paul are the 
confessions of a great soul and the counsels of a great 
mind, revealing with the intimacy of passionate affection 
the hopes and fears, the ideas and ideals, which passing 


98 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


events conspired to suggest. Liberty, unity, spirituality, 
the bearing of each other’s burdens, the supreme law of 
sacrificial love,—these essential graces of the Christian life, 
traced in a masterly fashion to the abiding influence of 
the grace of Jesus Christ, give to the letters of Paul their 
permanent place as guides of religious experience, and 
make them the most undisguised and the most inspiring 
chapters of spiritual autobiography in the history of 
literature. ’’ 


CHAPTER V 
THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES AND REVELATION 


The following seven Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II 
Peter, I, IJ and III John and Jude, have from early times 
been designated ‘‘Catholic Enpistles,’’ probably because 
they are not addressed to particular churches but are let- 
ters for general circulation, and in this class we shall in- 
clude Hebrews as being of the same nature. 

These Epistles stand in contrast with Paul’s letters in 
that they did not grow out of special conditions in par- 
ticular churches or were not addressed to individuals, but 
dealt with general conditions of early Christian life. They 
put emphasis on conduct rather than on creed and are 
ethical rather than theological, although of course doc- 
trine is interwoven with this ethical teaching as ethical 
teaching is interwoven with Paul’s doctrinal Epistles. 


HEBREWS 

The Epistle to the Hebrews is unique among the books 
of the New Testament in several respects. It contains no 
internal indications of its authorship and of the time and 
place of its writing and of the location of the readers to 
whom it is addressed. While the Authorized Version calls 
it ‘‘The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews,’’ yet 
the Revised Version designates it ‘‘The Epistle to the 
Hebrews,’’ showing that the name of Paul is not found 
in the earliest manuscripts. These manuscripts have as a 
title simply the words ‘‘To Hebrews,’’ and it is thought 
that these were supplied by a copyist. 

As to authorship it is clearly not the work of Paul as 
the writer includes himself among those who recéived the 
gospel at second hand (2:38), whereas Paul emphatically 
claimed to have it by direct revelation (Gal. 1:12), and 
the whole method of reasoning and literary style are dif- 

99 


100 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ferent from Paul’s, and this internal evidence is strongly 
against his authorship. Other names that have been sug- 
gested for the honor, such as those of Barnabas and 
Apollos, are not supported by evidence. 

Uncertain also is the location of the readers to whom it 
was addressed. The most probable and generally accepted 
supposition is that they were Jewish Christians in Rome; 
and the probable time of its origin is indicated by the fact 
that the Temple services apparently were still being ob- 
served (10:1-2), and this would place its writing before 
the destruction of the Temple in 70 A. D. 

This Epistle is also unique in that it sets out to prove a 
definite proposition which is logically maintained from 
beginning to end. It comes nearer to being a systematic 
treatise than any other book in the Bible. Its proposition 
is that the Old Dispensation of the Mosaic Law is fulfilled 
and superceded by the New Dispensation of the Gospel. 
It announces its theme in the stately sentence with which 
it opens (1:1-4) in which it is declared that God, who 
had spoken in various times and ways to the fathers or 
prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his 
Son, who is the brightness of his glory and the express 
image of his person. Christ is thus at once set above 
Moses and above angels, and presently the cross is set above 
the altar, and this line of logic runs through the great 
argument as a musical theme recurs and rolls through a 
grand symphony. 

It was therefore probably addressed to Jewish Chris- 
tians who were called upon to make a great sacrifice and 
undergo a profound shock and change in passing from | 
Moses to Christ, from Judaism, with all its sacred and 
patriotic roots and associations of a thousand years, to 
Christianity, and from the Temple, with its elaborate and 
gorgeous ceremonies, to the simple worship of a Christian 
church. 

The tendency was strong among these Jewish Christians 
to fall under the spell and back into the practice of Juda- 
ism, and to resist this tendency was the great battle of the 
early churches. Paul was a magnificent champion for 
freedom from Moses under the Gospel, and the unknown 
writer of Hebrews eloquently defended and contended for 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 101 


the same liberty. When it is considered how hard it is 
for people with long settled religious convictions to give 
up established and sacrosant orthodoxy for new forms of 
truth, we may appreciate the hard struggle it cost these 
Jewish Christians to make the transition from the old to 
the new. This Epistle is one of the historic landmarks of 
this change, an outstanding monument of this ancient 
battlefield. 

The Epistle proceeds in logical order from its opening 
sentence from one telling point to another, and is written 
in a smooth and flowing and beautiful literary style. In- 
terwoven with its logic at intervals are hortatory passages 
in which practical applications of its arguments are made. 
As we read it through we cannot but feel its charm as well 
as its logic, and some critics think it is the most beautiful 
book in the Bible. 

Outline of Hebrews: 

I. The finality of the Christian revelation, 1-4. 
II. Christ as the true High Priest, 5-10. 


III. Eulogy of Old Testament characters as illustrations 
of faith, 11. 


IV. Practical applications and exhortations, 12-13. 


JAMES 


The contents of this general Epistle are moral teachings 
cften expressed in aphoristic form after the manner of 
proverbs. At times it gives the impression of a string of 
pearls of wisdom with little inner connection, although 
the string itself is there as a common tie. There is a sur- 
prising lack of distinctive Christian doctrinal teaching, 
and Christ himself, although mentioned, remains in the 
background. 

There is a contrast between faith and works running 
through the Epistle and coming out into special expression 
at particular points, notably in 2:14-26, and some have 
thought that the writer was opposing Paul’s doctrine of 
salvation by faith and exalting works against faith. It is 
unnecessary, however, to put this interpretation upon the 
Epistle and it is plain enough that the writer is empha- 
sizing the necessity of works as an expression of living 


faith and opposing a theoretical and unfruitful or dead 
faith. 


102 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


As a homily or treatise on practical Christian ethics the 
Epistle was greatly needed among the early churches and 
it is needed not less today. It inculeates the doing of what 
we know and condemns profession without practice, creed 
without character and conduct, faith without works, and 
these are ever vital points in our Christian life. James 
in his Epistle supplements Paul in his letters, and the two 
together make the full-orbed Christian doctrine. Of course 
James also teaches the necessity of faith, and Paul teaches 
the necessity of works, but each puts special emphasis on 
the point he has in view, and the two are not antagonistic 
but complementary and~at the center are in harmony. 

The author announces himself in the first verse as James, 
but there were many men of this name in apostolic times 
and in these early churches and so the name is indecisive 
as to the particular James. The traditional view has 
been that the writer was James the brother of the Lord 
and this remains a possibility. Yet there are difficulties 
that embarrass this view, such as that if the writer were 
the brother of the Lord would he not have said more about 
the Lord Jesus and his teaching and works? Many schol- 
ars hold that the author was some other James living at a 
later time and an unknown place. The authorship of the 
letter is of little importance: its contents remain the same 
on any theory of its authorship and are of permanent 
value. 

Outline of James: 


I. Temptations, 1. 
II. Faults and failings, 2-4. 
III. Admonitions as to riches, patience, sickness and 
prayer, 5 


I and I] PrEter 

I Peter declares itself to be a letter of the Apostle Peter 
written from ‘‘Babylon’’ (5:13) which is plainly Rome, 
to the ‘‘strangers seattered’’ through Asia Minor, or to 
the Jewish Christians in that region. It is written under 
impending ‘‘trial’’ (1:7; 4: 12-19) which overshadows the 
pages of the letter like a storm cloud, and it is intended 
to strengthen believers in faith and godly living in those 
perilous times. It breathes Peter’s spirit of deep convic- 
tion and urgency of action and recalls his speeches in the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 103 


Acts in its quotations from the prophets (1:16; 2:6). 
Both the internal indications and the early external evi- 
dence strongly sustain the Petrine authorship. 

As to its date, there is ancient evidence that Peter per- 
ished in the first Roman persecution of Christians under 
Nero in 64 A. D., and if this is a true tradition this per- 
secution would be the ‘‘trial’’ that was impending at. the 
time of the writing of this Epistle. The next persecution 
was under Domitian about 90 A. D., and some date the 
Epistle in this period. 

II Peter also purports to be from the hand of Peter and 
refers to I Peter (3:1), but it is so different in contents 
and style that most scholars think it was written by a 
later disciple of Peter and attributed to him after the 
literary practice of the time. The Epistle deals with the 
certainty of the Christian faith, with false teachers and 
with the end of the world. It is notable as containing a 
direct reference to Paul’s Epistles (8: 15-16) in which the 
author found some things ‘‘hard to be understood.’’ Com- 
mentators have had the same trouble with Paul to this 
day. 

Outline of I Peter: 

I. Salutation and thanksgiving, 1: 1-12. 
II. Exhortations to holiness, 1: 18-25. 
III. Ohrist the chief corner stone, 2: 1-10. 
IV. Civil and domestic virtues, 2: 1-10. 
V. Coming trials, 4. 
VI. ‘Admonitions to elders and conclusions, 5. 


Outline of II Peter: 


I. Salutation, 1: 1-4. 

II. Christian graces enjoined, 1: 5-15. 
III. False teachers, 2. 
VI. The end of the world, 3. 


I, II and III Joun 


These three letters, two of them mere notes, are all 
anonymous, but from early times they have been attributed 
to the Apostle John, and there is much in their contents 
and style that bears out this authorship. The writer evi- 
dently had personal knowledge of Christ (1:1), the lt- 
erary style has close affinities with that of the Fourth Gos- 
pel, and the characteristic words of that Gospel, such as 
life, light and truth, are also prominent in it. If the 


¥ 
j 


104 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


author is John the apostle their date falls near the end 
of the first Christian century. 

Their contents deal with existing conditions in the 
churches. The first Epistle glows with the love of God 
and it gives us two notable definitions of God: ‘‘God is 
light’? (1:5) and ‘‘God is love’’ (4:8). The second let- 
ter is specially aimed at ‘‘deceivers’’ who denied that 
‘‘ Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,’’ which denial was 
probably the ancient heresy that Jesus did not have a 
true human body but only a phantasm or appearance of 
one. The third brief letter condemns the self-assertion of 
one Diotrephes who was swollen with conceit and was 
troubling the church. 


Outline of I John: 


J. The incarnation of Christ and the duty of fellow- 
ship with him, 1. 
II. Warnings against sin, 2, 
III. The love of God and the duty it enjoins upon us, 3. 
IV. On trying the spirits and living in the love of God, 4. 
VY. Faith in Christ and its fruits, 5. 


Outline of II John: 


I. Salutation, 1-3. 

II. Exhortation to love, 4-6. 
III. Warning against false teachers, 7-11. 
IV. Conclusion, 12-18, 


Outline of III John: 


I. Salutation, 1. 

II. Gaius congratulated on his faithfulness, 2-8. 
III. The self-assertion of Diotrephes, 9-12. 
IV. Conclusion, 18-14. 


JUDE 


This little letter is by ‘‘Jude, the servant of Jesus 
Christ, and brother of James,’’ and from the earliest times 
the author has been identified with ‘‘Judas,’’ one of the 
brothers of Jesus (Matt. 13:55). It is a general letter 
addressed to the ‘‘sanetified’’ or Christian believers. It 
warns against certain false teachers and urges faithful- 
ness in Christian living. A comparison of verses 4-16 with 
II Peter 2 shows that the two passages are so closely alike 
that one or the other author has used the other, and the 
priority has by most scholars been accorded to Jude. 

The letter is unique among the books of the New Testa- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 105 


ment in that it quotes from the Book of Enoch (14), one 
of the apocryphal books of the Jews, and probably also 


from the Assumption of Moses (9), another apocryphal 
book. 


Outline of Jude: 


I. Salutation, 1-36, 
II. False teachers, 4-16. 
III. Exhortations and doxology, 17-25. 


REVELATION 

The Book of Revelation belongs to the class of apoca- 
lyptie literature that abounded among the Jews during the 
period extending from 200 B. C. to 100 A. D. The word 
apocalypse means ‘“‘unveiling’’ or ‘‘revelation’’ and such 
books were intended to reveal truth under symbolic forms 
which yet concealed it from hostile eyes. Two of these 
books are incorporated in the Bible, Daniel and Revela- 
tion, the one addressed to Jews under the terrible persecu- 
tion of Antiochus Epiphanes, in the second century B. C., 
and the other to Christians under the Roman persecution 
of Domitian near the close of the first century A. D. The 
messages had to be conveyed in terms and figures that 
would not excite the intensified persecution of these ene- 
mies and yet would ‘‘unveil’’ the truth to persecuted 
believers; hence the apocalyptic form, a kind of literary 
camouflage with which the Jews were familiar and which 
would be plain to them. 

This fact must be kept steadily in view in interpreting 
these books, or they will become a phantasmagoria in 
which the wildest vagaries will run riot. They have 
proven a mirage which has lured countless commentators 
into the pitfalls of fanciful interpretation. They have 
always been the ‘‘happy hunting grounds’’ of religious 
visionaries and fanatics. 

When read in the light of this historical background 
Revelation ceases to be a hopeless enigma or tangle of 
puzzles and becomes reasonably clear in its meaning. It is 
true we are often mystified or in doubt as to the exact 
meaning of the highly figurative imagery employed, and 
yet the general purpose may be plain. 

The author of the book is generally accepted to be the 


106 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


same as the author of the Fourth Gospel, and its date is 
placed near the end of the first century A. D. 


Outline of the Revelation: 


I. Introduction, 1: 1-8. 
II. Messages to the Seven Churches, 1: 9-8: 22, 
III. Five visions, 4-16. 
IV. The Fall of Rome, 17-18. 
V. The Coming of Christ, 19. 
VI. The Final Judgment, 20. 
VII. The New Heaven and the New Earth, 21-22: 9. 
VIII. Conclusion, 22: 10-21. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CANON AND TRANSMISSION OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT 


There are now some general features or facts in connec- 
tion with the New Testament that we may briefly consider. 


1. THe CANON 


The canon of the Scriptures means the rule of faith or 
the books that came to be included in the Bible as inspired 
or authoritative Scripture. The twenty-seven books in 
our New Testament are only a selection from a larger 
number of religious books produced in the first and sec- 
ond centuries by Jewish and Christian writers, and some 
of these extra-canonical books not only survive but are of 
value in the history of early Christianity. 

Among these early Christian writings we may specially 
name the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, 
the Second Epistle of Clement, and the Didache or Teach- 
ing of the Twelve Apostles. ‘Some of these books were 
regarded and quoted as inspired and came near to being 
adopted into the canon, as is seen in the fact that some 
of them are found in early existing manuscripts of the 
New Testament. 

The process of sifting out the writings regarded as 
genuinely inspired, however, began early in the second 
eentury and proceeded slowly and through much debate 
and difficulty and lingering doubt until it was finally 
settled in the fourth century. Early writers, Clement of 
Rome (95 A. D.), Ignatius (115 A. D.) and Polyearp (115 
A. D.) began to quote or use words from some of our New 
Testament books. Justin Martyr (150 A. D.) was 
acquainted with the idea of a canon and ‘‘from his time 
onwards no one could doubt that the writings of the 

107 


108 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


apostles were, for the church, the primary authority for 
the determination of apostolic doctrine.”’ 

Justin Martyr’s disciple, Tatian, composed a Diatessaron 
or Harmony of the Four Gospels, based exclusively on 
our canonical Gospels. At first the Christian converts 
and preachers appealed only to the Old Testament as 
Scripture, but presently in the second century they began 
to appeal to the Gospels and then to the Epistles as of 
equal authority with the Old Testament. 

There was much difference of opinion about certain 
books. Opposition was strong against Hebrews, James, I 
Peter, II and III John-and Revelation, and these were 
among the last to receive general acceptance. Divided 
opinion and debate continued through the second and third 
centuries, and it was not until the Synod of Carthage in 
397, at which Augustine was present, that the canon of 
the New Testament as we now have it was finally settled. 
The Old Testament passed through the same process and a 
longer period of doubt and it was not finally decided by 
Jewish authorities until about 200 A. D. 

The question is sometimes raised as to whether the 
canon is yet closed and as to whether we do not have the 
right to open it either to take from it or add to it. Luther 
proposed to exclude James and there are yet those who 
would exclude Esther and Ecclesiastes. No one, however, 
proposes to add any other book, and the question of ex- 
eluding any book now in the canon is not seriously raised 
and is largely an academic one. The Roman Catholic Bible 
contains certain books in the Old Testament not found in 
the Protestant canon, but the New Testament canon is the 
same in all communions. 


2. MANUSCRIPTS. 

The New Testament at first was written by hand on 
parchment or vellum usually of calfskin or on papyrus 
rolls, and this process was slow and expensive and made 
copies of the Scriptures scaree and costly. No autograph 
copy of any New Testament writing survives, and the old- 
est existing manuscript of the Bible is the Codex Sinaiti- 
cus discovered in 1844 in a monastery at Mt. Sinai and 
now in the Imperial Library at Petrograd. It dates from 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 109 


the 4th century and originally contained the whole Bible, 
and it still has the New Testament complete. Still earlier 
fragments of the New Testament exist, but this is the old- 
est complete copy, and probably it is the most precious 
book or manuscript in the world. It has been published 
in fae simile and is thus open to the study of scholars. 

There are altogether more than 1,800 manuscripts of 
parts or the whole of the New Testament in existence, and 
of these 5 date from the 4th century, 17 from the 5th cen- 
tury, 85 from the 6th century, and so on in increasing 
numbers to the 17th century. Of course the printing press 
finally put an end to making manuscript copies of the 
Seriptures. Many of these manuscripts are beautifully 
written and ornamented with color and gilt work, and 
some of them are costly and splendid works of art. 

The comparing of these manuscripts, especially the early 
ones, has been carried on with immense labor and patience 
so as to derive and construct the most correct text. There 
are several hundred thousand variations among the 
manuscripts, but these are all relatively unimportant and 
most of them are quite trivial. The best text does not con- 
sist of any manuscript, but is the product of all of them 
as worked out by the science of textual criticism. 

The early manuscripts not only have no chapter and 
verse divisions but usually have no punctuation marks 
and the words and letters run on without break. Our 
present New Testament chapters were introduced by 
Cardinal Caro in 1238 and the verse divisions were made 
by Robertus Stephanus in 1551. 


3. TRANSLATIONS 

The Bible early passed through translation into other 
languages, the Septuagint or Greek version of the Old 
Testament being begun in the third century, B. C. The 
New Testament was translated in the fourth century, 
A. D., into Latin, Syriac, Egyptian and Armenian. In 
time it was rendered into all modern languages and can 
now be read in whole or in part in no fewer than seven 
hundred and seventy different languages and dialects. 
Few are the human beings on the globe, among savage 
tribes or on lonely islands or far corners of the world, that 


110 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


cannot have at least some part of the New Testament in 
their own tongue. 

The history of the English New Testament begins in the 
Sth century when the Venerable Bede, an eminent scholar 
and churchman, translated the first six chapters of John’s 
Gospel into the vernacular, but unfortunately this has 
been lost. Portions of the Psalms were next translated, 
and in the 10th century the Gospels were put into Anglo- 
Saxon. Many translations of parts of the New Testament 
were made before the first complete rendering of the Bible 
into English appeared in the 14th century under the name 
of Wycliffe, though whether he did any part of the work 
or all of it was done by his followers is uncertain. 

Succeeding versions now appeared, each one striving to 
improve on its predecessors, down to our day. The ver- 
sion of William Tyndale, ‘‘to whom,’’ says Dr. Westcott, 
‘‘it has been allowed more than to any other man to give 
its characteristic shape to the English Bible,’’ appeared 
in 1525. Coverdale’s Bible appeared in the same year, the 
Bishops’ Bible in 1568, and the Roman Catholic Reims 
and Douai version in 1582. Our Authorized Version, un- 
dertaken under the auspices of King James I and hence 
called the King James’ Version, was begun in 1604 and 
published in 1611. The Revised Version, the joint prod- 
uct of English and American scholars, was begun in 1870 
and the New Testament was completed in 1881. The 
American Standard Revision, issued in 1895, incorporates 
the suggestions of the American Revisers which were not 
accepted by the British revisers. 

Several translations into more modern English, aiming 
to give the meaning of the original in our everyday speech, 
have appeared, and the most scholarly and probably the 
best of these is A New Translation by Dr. James Moffatt. 
The reading of this translation gives one a strikingly fresh 
and vivid sense of the meaning of the book. Our English 
New Testament is thus the product of more than a thou- 
sand years of scholarship devoted to the best rendering of 
the inspired Word into our noble English speech. Hach 
successive version was based upon all former versions, and 
the final product is the ripened result of the whole process 
and growth and enrichment of ten centuries of study and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 111 


literary culture. Our English Bible is believed to be the 
best translation of the Scriptures ever made, retaining as 
few versions have succeeded in doing not only the meaniny 
but the very spirit and flavor of the original. 

Our New Testament brings to us ‘‘words that are spirit 
and life.’’ These words express the thoughts of the apos- 
tles and of Jesus himself and recreate them in our minds 
so as to beget in us the same spiritual ideas and states and 
experiences they had. The whole New Testament is thus 
passed into our spiritual blood and assimilated into our 
spirit and speech. The life of Jesus is lived over again for 
us from his birth through all its scenes and sayings to its 
glorious end. Again we hear the angels sing and go with 
the shepherds to Bethlehem, and again we walk the high- 
ways and byways of Palestine as they were pressed by his 
blessed feet, and we view his mighty works and hear his 
very words. We sce him steeped in splendor on the mount 
of transfiguration, witness the tragedy of the cross, expe- 
rience all the wonder and excitement of the resurrection 
morning and gaze after him as he ascends into heaven. 

John diffuses his mystic Gospel in our hearts and unrolls 
his grand apocalyptic pictures in the gallery of our imagi- 
nation. We go with Paul to Corinth and Rome and look 
over his shoulder as he composes a profound theological 
epistle or pens a brief note to a friend. 

Our English New Testament thus enables us to live over 
again the lives and experiences of apostles and of Jesus and 
fashions us into their likeness. This book pours their blood 
into our veins. It crowds their consciousness into our 
minds, even the human consciousness of Jesus, and thus 
we live, and yet not we, but Christ liveth in us. 

This is why we should ever study, mark and meditate 
upon it, and thus dissolve it in our hearts that it may reap- 
pear in the strength and fruitfulness, the beauty and the 
blessedness of our Christian life. 


bet, Ny oe 
we jaa, 


tS sedis 
4" fey! r N 


uh ae V SP) 


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4, F Ayal 
Neca ae lua | ay Ly 
Oe +e) ive. Arh a 





PART III 
THE LIFE OF JESUS 


ete: "heh ULE ta 30. 





CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 


The central Fact of the New Testament is a supreme 
Person. Persons are the significant and dominant facts 
and forces of the world. Great men are the teachers and 
leaders of mankind, the creators of civilization, the proph- 
ets and apostles that dream dreams that shape the things 
that are yet to be. They are the path-breakers and road- 
builders of the world. They are the mountain ranges and 
peaks that lift the level of the ages and determine the di- 
rections of the winds and rivers and earve the continents 
of history. 

History is largely the biographies of great men in whom 
were concentrated the ideas and energies that controlled 
countless multitudes of human beings through a long sue- 
cession of generations. One masterful man with a great 
ereative idea and compelling will may mold millions and 
put a spell upon far centuries. 

It is the power of personality that makes the great states- 
man, general, orator, thinker, writer, or leader in any 
field. It was by the impact of personality that Demosthe- 
nes spoke in Athens and his voice sent Asiatic hordes stag- 
gering back in confusion from the shores of Greece, Cae- 
sar mastered Rome, Napoleon dominated Europe, and Lin- 
eoln liberated a fettered race. What would the Hebrew 
people have been without Abraham, or the Israelites with- 
out Moses, or primitive Christianity without Paul, or the 
American colonies without Washington? Could fifteen or 
twenty of the topmost names be blotted from the roll of 
history in what a poor and pitiful world might we be liv- 
ing today? 

On this principle, who can calculate the infinite loss and 
lowering of all the levels of the world were Christ stricken 

115 


116 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


from the calendar of the centuries! All the ancient world, 
as we have seen, was a background and preparation for 
his coming, all the preceding centuries gravitated and con- 
verged towards his birth, and all the succeeding Christian 
events have flowed from him as a stream from its fountain. 

Christendom is Christ writ large. It dates its calendar 
from his advent and organizes itself around him as its cen- 
ter. The Christian centuries are his lengthened shadow. 
Our modern world bears his image and superscription. 

It is sadly true that the image is yet dim and blurred 
and at points scarcely discernible, but it is slowly being 
stamped upon our civilization. There are yet deep shad- 
ows and frightful blots even on Christendom, but the light 
is appreciably dawning on a Christian day. More and 
more the world is weighing its worths in his balances, test- 
ing its principles by his teachings, and deciding its ques- 
tions by his standards. 

Christ stands in the New Testament as a dynamic Per- 
son who cannot be circumscribed within human limitations 
and explained in purely human terms. He is human yet 
also divine, exemplifying in the most perféct and beauti- 
ful ways our common humanity and yet overstepping all 
our human boundaries and manifesting himself as the Son 
of God and Saviour of the world. 

We have traced the ancient background that prepared 
for his coming and examined the books that contain the 
records of his life and work, and now we shall look at him 
more directly and endeavor to construct a portrait out of 
these materials that we may hope will bring Christ some- 
what nearer and make him more real to us. 

Space will permit only an outline sketch that will pre- 
sent only the chief scenes and sayings in this wonderful 
life. An endeavor will be made, however, not to produce 
a narrative of bare facts, but to impart to the picture some 
color and charm that will make it an attractive reality and 
cause Jesus to stand before us as a living and present per- 
sonality. Narrative and description will be accompanied 
and illuminated with some interpretation and application, 
and the selected scenes and sayings will follow and be 
fitted into the Outline of Events in the Life of Jesus 
already adopted in our treatment for the Gospels. 


CHAPTER II 
THE THIRTY SILENT YEARS 


The first word in the life of Jesus is silence. AI] human 
life begins in the womb of secrecy and then emerges into 
the open and slowly proceeds through long preparation 
into full development and activity. The tree sinks itself 
deep into soil and rock, and all great souls hide their roots 
in solitude and silence and patiently grow in secret before 
they come forth strong and skilled to do their work. 

This private preparation may be long compared with the 
period of public service. It may take the artist years to 
acquire the skill that can execute a masterpiece in a few 
days or weeks, as the meteor gathers momentum through 
millions of invisible miles for one swift flash of splendor. 
Jesus took thirty years of preparation for just three years 
of work. These silent years may seem a great price to pay 
for such a brief ministry, but it was because he took time 
in preparation and got so thoroughly ready that he could 
accomplish his mission in so short a period of activity. 


1. THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS 
John 1:1-4; Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3 :23-38 

Biography begins before birth. Heredity runs its roots 
back through many generations and even the entire race, 
and a complete biography of any life would open in Eden. 
Every line of study leads to remote origins, and the su- 
preme problem of philosophy is to get back to the First 
Cause. The Bible antedates all temporal origins in its 
sublime declaration, ‘‘In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth.’’ 

John opens his bicgraphy of Jesus in eternity. ‘‘In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God.’’ Jesus himself had an eternal con- 

ne yg 


118 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


sciousness, declaring, ‘‘Before Abraham was, I am.’’ This 
was the true origin of Christ, and here we must leave this 
mystery. 

Matthew and Luke give the human genealogies of Jesus, 
Matthew beginning with Abraham and ending with Jesus, 
and Luke reversing this order starts with Jesus and runs 
back to Adam and up to God. The two lists are different 
and this has always given rise to much discussion and dif- 
ference of view. Various theories have been advanced to 
explain this fact. The most generally accepted explana- 
tion is that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, and 
Luke gives that of Mary: The question is a complicated 
one but it is not of great importance, and our space will 
not permit even an explanation of these theories. A com- 
pact and clear discussion of the problem will be found in 
Robertson’s recent Harmony of the Gospels, pp. 255-262. 

The important thing about these genealogies is that they 
show that Jesus was of true human descent with ancestral 
roots running back to Abraham and Adam and up to God. 
They are thus a suggested sketch of a complete human 
heredity rooted in our entire race. Jesus was bone of 
our bone and flesh of our flesh. He drew his blood out of 
the veins of humanity and had tiny drops that descended 
into him from the most ancient springs of our race, even 
from Adam himself. 

This true human kinship was a necessary part of his 
equipment for his mission as the Saviour of the world. It 
enabled him to identify himself with us so as to know us 
and sympathize with us, and it enables us to know and 
enter into intimate fellowship with him. This humanity 
of Jesus does not exclude or obscure his divinity but is the 
human means by and in which the glory of his divine na- 
ture is manifested. 


2. A Hony Mystery REVEALED 
Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-38 


As the opening acts of a drama shift rapidly from point 
to point, so the early scenes of this story occur in quick 
succession at widely separated places. Angels seem to have 
been swiftly flitting up and down through Judea and Gal- 
ilee, bearing messages to the chief characters in the open- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 119 


ing scenes of redemption. The whole land was alive with 
the divine presence, and Jerusalem and Nazareth and Beth- 
lehem were luminous points that attracted the celestial 
visitants. 

Announcement was made in Jerusalem to Zacharias and 
Elizabeth of the coming birth of John the Baptist as the 
forerunner of Jesus, and the next announcement was made 
to the Virgin Mary. Nothing is known of her family, but 
no queen or empress born to royal power and splendor, no 
woman of genius crowned with fame, was ever so highly 
honored as this Jewish peasant girl. ‘‘Hail, thou that art 
highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou 
among women’’ (Luke 1:28). She was picked out of the 
countless millions of her human kind for this transcendent 
distinction that has made her conspicuous through all suc- 
ceeding ages. 

This strange announcement troubled the simple wonder- 
ing girl, and she cast about in her mind what this manner 
of salutation meant. Fear shadowed all these angelic an- 
nouncements. The angel quieted the troubled maiden with 
the assurance that she had found favor with God. ‘‘ And 
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a 
son, and shalt call his name Jesus.’’ The virgin was now 
thrown into a new and deeper perplexity. ‘‘How shall 
this be?’’ she exclaimed, “‘seeing I know not a man.’’ 
Then the angel revealed the great mystery; ‘‘The Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which 
shall be born of thee shall be ealled the Son of God.’’ 

This initial miracle of the gospel story is definitely de- 
clared in the Gospels and has on it inimitable marks of 
truth and none of the marks of fiction. It is a private fact, 
and Matthew tells it as it must have been known to and 
have come from Joseph, and Luke as it must have been 
known to Mary. It is told with matchless modesty and 
artlessness and the reader feels that it could not have been 
invented. 

It is not an isolated and irrational wonder, but an har- 
monious and logical part of the system of redemption. It 
is congruous with the preéxistence of Jesus and with his 
incarnation of God and his sinless humanity. The Son of 


120 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


God was separated from ordinary men both in his en- 
trance into and in his exit from this world. We accept 
this holy mystery and believe that the birth of Jesus was 
unique and ushered a new Man, even the Son of God, into 
the world. 


3. THe Birta In BetHLEHEM 
Matthew 1 :24-25; Luke 2:1-7 


Caesar Augustus, master of the world, probably between 
the months of December and March, 5-4, B. C., issued a 
decree that a census should be taken of the empire that he 
might know its resources and reap from it a rich harvest 
of taxes, a decree that set all the world in commotion. 

In the town of Nazareth in the north of Palestine lived 
Joseph, a carpenter, and Mary, his espoused wife, who 
though a virgin was great with child, having been over- 
shadowed by the Holy Spirit and the mystery revealed to 
her and her betrothed husband. They were both descended 
from the line of David, and therefore, in accordance with 
the law that they be enrolled at their ancestral seat, to 
Bethlehem they must go. , 

Bethlehem is six miles south of Jerusalem on the crown 
of a steep ledge of rock or spur of the mountain ridge, 
jutting out to the east from the central range. Up this 
rocky road climbed the humble carpenter and his wife 
and passed through the gate into the village. When they 
came to the inn, it was already crowded with visitors 
driven thither by the decree that had stirred all Palestine 
and started many families to their ancestral seats. In con- 
nection with such an inn, usually the central space of its 
square inclosure, but probably in this case a cave in the 
limestone rock, was a stable or place for the horses and. 
camels and cattle of the guests. Among these Oriental 
people it was and is no uncommon thing for travelers to 
make a bed of straw and spend the night in this place. 

In this stable, probably in the very cave over which now 
stands the Church of the Nativity, Mary and Joseph found 
lodging for the night. It was not a mark of incivility on 
the part of the inn or of poverty on their part for them to 
do this, and yet what a glory that inn missed by not having 
room for these visitors that night! 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 121 


In that cave Mary brought forth her first-born son; and 
as there was no woman’s hand there to minister for her, 
she herself wrapped the babe in swaddling clothes; and as 
there was no other cradle to receive it she laid the child 
in the trough from which the camels were fed. 

This is all we know of what took place in that cave on 
that memorable night from which the Christian world now 
dates its calendar. The apocryphal Gospels, legends that 
afterwards grew up, fill the chamber with supernal light 
so that visitors had to shade their eyes from the splendor 
of the child; and the painters portray the holy child and 
mother with halos of glory around their heads. But all 
this is imagination and myth. Jesus was born as other 
children are born and looked just like a human child. No 
one seeing him could have guessed that a unique birth had 
brought a divine Man into the world. 

No spectacular display attended his birth such as cele- 
brated the birth of a Caesar. Jesus stole into the world 
quietly in human form and garb, and thereby he identi- 
fied himself with our human kind so that he eould knit 
himself into all our human needs and relations and truly 
be the Son of Man and Saviour of the world. 


4, ANGELS AND SHEPHERDS. Luke 2: 8-20 


The Christ-child was born, and now the problem was to 
vet the wonderful news out into the world. An angel 
came from heaven to proclaim the epochal event to earth. 
Where shall he go and begin, what human ears shall first 
have the pyivilege of hearing the glad tidings? Let the 
angel go to Jerusalem, we would have said, and call upon 
the high priest and first take him into his confidence, and 
then let him go to the temple and stand amidst the splen- 
dors of that holy sanctuary and announce to the assembled 
priests and scribes that prophecy had been fulfilled and 
their long-expected Messiah had come. Shall not some re- 
spect be paid to official places and persons? Has not God 
ordained priests and presbyters through whom he dis- 
penses his grace and administers his kingdom? 

Yet history witnesses that at times few men stand in 
God’s way more than ecclesiastics. They are rarely the 
men that earliest hear a new message; God must usually 


122 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


tell it to some one else first. One of the most startling 
things in the Bible is the fact that the announcement of the 
birth of Christ was made, not to priests, but to shepherds, 
and the gospel was first preached, not in a temple or 
church, but in a pasture field where there were more sheep 
than men to hear. What a rebuke is this to our ecclesias- 
tical pretension and pride! God can easily dispense with 
us and may pass us by and speak to humbler souls. The 
great people up in the temple have no monopoly of his 
grace and it may break out in some wholly unexpected 
place. 

On the night of the Nativity the shepherds were in the 
field keeping watch over their flocks, for those faithfully 
engaged in the lowliest duties may receive a splendid vis- 
itation from heaven. The skies were as serene and the 
stars burned as calm as in all the past. The shepherds 
were as unconscious of any coming wonder as the sleeping 
sheep that lay like drifted snow on the ridges. Yet the 
heavens were strained tense with expectation and were on 
the point of being shattered into song. 

Flocks of angels were flying downward from the stars, 
and as their white wings struck earth’s atmosphere they 
kindled it into radiance with heavenly glory, and from the 
gallery of the skies they chanted their song, accompanied, 
as the poets and painters have imagined, with all the 
golden harps and deep-toned organ pipes of the celestial 
choir. 

An angel voice sang the solo, ‘‘Behold, I bring you good 
tidings of great joy which shall be to all people: for there 
is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto 
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, 
and lying in a manger.’’ The solo was followed by the 
chorus, ‘‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good will among men.”’ 

Glory to God and human good will are the keynotes of 
this song. They are the fundamental notes of the gospel 
and are related as cause and effect. Divine glory is the 
sun shining in the heavens, and human good will is a gar- 
den and orchard all abloom with flowers and laden with 
fruit, As the glory of the sun is transformed into rosy 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 123 


buds and sweet fruit, so is the glory of God transformed 
into human good will. These are the two sides of the 
same gospel, the two parts of the same song. They cannot 
be separated and must go together; in glorifying God we 
make peace among men, and in making peace among men 
we glorify God. This is the social gospel that will save 
the world. 

Did these shepherds let the song vanish into the silence 
of oblivion with the last echo and fall back into the old 
dull routine? No, they did not let it lapse. ‘‘Let us now 
go,’ they said, ‘‘even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing 
which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known 
unto us.’’ They translated vision into action and pres- 
ently were climbing the rocky slope to Bethlehem and 
‘‘found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the 
manger.’’ 

‘‘Lying in a manger’’—so humble and lowly was the 
point at which the Son of God entered the world. He was 
not wrapped in a purple robe and laid on a downy couch 
but was born in a stable and shepherds were his first vis- 
itors. He came as one of the common people and to this 
day is their representative. No one can ever raise the 
level of society by winning over the rich and the great. 
Whoever would lift the world must get his lever under its 
foundation stones. Taking hold of the carved cornice will 
only tear the roof off, but raising the lowest stone will also 
push up the spire’s gilded point. 


5. WorSHIPPING WISE Men. Matthew 2:1-12 


The birth of Jesus created a new center for the world 
and set heaven and earth revolving around his eradle. All 
things began to gravitate towards him as by a new and 
more powerful attraction. Angels sang, shepherds won- 
dered, a new star glittered upon the blazing curtain of 
the night, and wise men came from afar to worship him. 
These wise men were Persian priests, scholars, scientists, 
astrologers, students of the stars. Rumors of a coming 
King or Saviour were widespread in the ancient world and 
doubtless had reached these worshipers of the sun to 
whom the stars were embodiments of deity. They were 
obedient to the heavenly vision, and across long stretches 


124 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


of desert sand they came and appeared in Jerusalem with 
their inquiry concerning the newborn King of the Jews. 

They were therefore broad-minded men whose horizon 
was wider than their own deserts, or they never would 
have overleaped their national piety and patriotism and 
prejudice into search and reverence for a Jewish King. 
There was no war between the science and the theology of 
these wise men. Their science did not kill their religion, and 
their religion did not strangle their science. The stars, 
according to their simple-minded way of thinking, did not 
crowd God out of his universe. Knowledge and reverence 
made one music in their hearts as both their science and 
their faith grew from more to more. 

In due time ‘‘they came into the house and saw the 
young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and 
worshiped him; and opening their treasures they offered 
unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.’’ Is 
there anything more beautiful in the Bible, or in all lit- 
erature? The imagination of painter or poet may well 
kindle at the scene. There are the wondering mother, the 
worshiping wise men bowing down, the shining fragrant 
gifts, and in the midst as the center and glory of it all the 
young Child. This Child, which even in its infancy sub- 
ordinates mother and wise men and gold to itself, is indeed 
a King. 

These Persian scholars were forerunners of other wise 
men going to Bethlehem. Through all the Christian cen- 
turies men of genius have been laying their most precious 
gifts at the feet of Christ. Columbus had no sooner set 
foot on a new shore than he named it San Salvador, Holy 
Saviour, and thus he laid his great discovery, America, at 
the feet of Jesus. Leonardo da Vinci swept the golden 
goblets from the table of his ‘‘Last Supper’’ because he 
feared their splendor would distract attention from and 
dim the glory of the Master himself. The hand that 
rounded St. Peter’s dome reared it in adoration of Christ, 
and Raphael in painting the ‘‘Transfiguration’’ laid his 
masterpiece at the feet of this Child. Mozart there laid 
his symphonies, and Beethoven the works of his colossal 
genius. Shakespeare, ‘‘with the best brain in six thou- 
sand years,’’ who has poured the many-colored splendors 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 125 


of his imagination over all our life, wrote in his will: ‘‘I 
commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hop- 
ing and assuredly believing, through the only merits of 
Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life ever- 
lasting.’’ Tennyson begins his In Memoriam, in the judg- 
ment of many the superbest literary blossom of the nine- 
teenth century, with the invocation, ‘*Strong Son of God, 
Immortal Love.’’ The gold of these wise men was only 
the first gleam of the shining heaps of wealth and of the 
most precious worths of the world that his followers are 
now piling on the altar of his service. 

Every generation sends a more numerous company to 
Bethlehem. With every century worshipers arrive from 
more distant lands. From every quarter of the globe paths 
now run to the manger of this Child, worn deep by mil- 
lions of feet. The nations are beginning to come. By and 
by these converging roads will be crowded and the ends 
of the earth will bring their gold and their most fragrant 
gifts and shall lay them at his feet. 

To escape the murderous fury, born of fear of a rival, of 
Herod, who sent soldiers to thrust a sword through every 
eradle in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph fled with the Child 
by way of Egypt and returned to Nazareth. 


6. Tue CuitpHoop AT NAZARETH 
Matthew 2:23; Luke 2: 39-52 


Two or three brief descriptive verses and one anecdote 
tell us all we know of the childhood of Jesus. We would 
like to know more; for we are interested in the childhood 
of great men. We are curious to see whether the stamp 
of greatness was on them from the beginning, or whether 
at first they were indistinguishable from other children. 

We wonder what may have been the boyhood of Jesus 
and long for a peep behind the veil. As usual the apoc- 
ryphal gospels are most voluble where the inspired Gospels 
are most reticent. They fill the childhood of Jesus with 
marvels and miracles that are irrational and silly. The 
broad difference between the books that were put in and 
the books that were kept out of the New Testament is one 
of the wonders and proofs of inspiration. 


126 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


But while the Gospels maintain an impressive silence, 
yet we know more than they tell us and have considerable 
general knowledge of the childhood of Jesus. We know 
that he was a true human child and grew up through the 
normal stages and experiences of our human life. He 
nestled and cooed and smiled in his mother’s arms. His 
‘‘baby hand was pressed against the circle of the breast,’’ 
and he was lulled to sleep with a eradle song. He took 
his first tottering steps and invented his first childish 
words. He played in his father’s carpenter shop and went 
to the village school. We know and use one of his school- 
books, for he studied the Old Testament in the synagogue 
which was the common school of the town, where attend- 
ance was compulsory. There were brothers in the home, 
and he grew up with them. He associated with the boys 
of Nazareth and played with them on the streets. 

He must have walked the fields and climbed the hills 
around Nazareth and observed the beauty of flower and 
forest. From the hilltops he could see far and look down 
on the plain of Esdraelon, steeped in historic associations, 
and over to Carmel, and if he went far enough he could 
eatch glimpses of snow-covered Hermon and sparkling 
Lake Galilee and the plunging, foaming Jordan and even 
of the blue Mediterranean. 

He was a keen observer and a lover of nature and com- 
muned with it and saturated his soul with its mystic life. 
He did not for the first time observe the birds circling in 
the air and the loveliness of the lily when he used them as 
illustrations in his sermons, but all these nature refer- 
ences were reminiscences of his childhood life in Naz- 
areth. 

So also his knowledge of human nature that comes out 
so richly in his parables and teachings came out of his 
childhood knowledge, the unconscious education he picked 
up in the homes and streets of the village. He had seen 
his mother mixing dough or a neighboring woman sweep- 
ing her house in search of a lost coin before these incidents 
erept into his sermons as homely illustrations that made 
the truth picturesque and vivid. 

In fact the whole childhood of Jesus was woven into his 
publie ministry and can be read between the lines. His 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 127 


language was spun of the homely speech of rural life and 
all that he said and did ran back to the home and school 
and streets and hillsides of Nazareth. 

We draw the line at any wrong act or thought. He was 
human, yet he was sinless. But he was not a grown-up 
boy, such as we used to find in the Sunday-school books, 
old beyond his years, morbidly self-conscious and unnat- 
urally pious; but he was a genuine boy, artless, inquiring, 
spirited, with his whole nature in free and healthy play. 
The very charm of his boyhood lies in the fact that he was 
a boy and not something else. 

The single recorded incident in the boyhood of Jesus is 
a ‘‘solitary floweret out of the wonderful enclosed garden 
of thirty years.’’ It occurred when he was twelve years 
of age. This was a eritical age and turning point in the 
life of the Jewish boy. At this age he was obliged to 
learn a trade for his own support; he began to wear the 
phylacteries; and he became ‘‘a son of the law’’ and was 
in some degree released from parental control. At this 
age the Jewish boy began to act upon his own responsi- 
bility and to take care of himself, and this fact throws 
light upon this incident. 

- Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem to 
the feast of the Passover, the great religious festival of 
the Jews, and on this occasion Jesus went with them. 
Probably for the first time he stepped out of the seclusion 
of Nazareth into the publicity of the metropolis, and it 
must have been with emotions of deep wonder and rever- 
ence that he entered the holy city and witnessed its scenes 
and shared in the services of the temple. He had a koy’s 
interest and delight in the sights of the city, but the cen- 
ter of interest for him was his Father’s house. 

While at the feast the boy became separated from his 
parents, and they started home without him, supposing 
that he was in the caravan with friends—a not unlikely or 
unusual occurrence. On the third day, becoming anxious 
about him, they returned and found him in the temple in 
the midst of the rabbis, hearing them and asking them 
questions and displaying such wisdom that all were aston- 
ished. 

This scene in the boyhood of Jesus has sometimes been 


128 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


despoiled of its truth and beauty by making it out that 
he was instructing these rabbis and showing off his supe- 
rior wisdom. On the contrary, he was hearing them and 
asking them questions; he was not instructor but scholar. 
Jesus never played the part of a smart boy but was mod- 
est and teachable and kept his place in the presence of 
superiors, and it was his rare spirit of wisdom and candor 
that elicited the admiration of those that heard him. 

The parents were astonished—struck with admiration, as 
the strong Greek word means—at the scene. Parents are 
proverbially pleased with and proud of signs of promise in 
their children, and Mary and Joseph experienced this de- 
light in a rare degree as the religious genius of Jesus be- 
gan to flash out. 

Yet there was also an ominous element in the situation 
which ealled forth from the anxious mother the chiding 
question, ‘‘Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?’’ She 
realized that the lines of parental influence were slipping 
from her hands and that henceforth she could control her 
boy less and less and that he would act for himself more 
and more. 

That was a painful moment for Mary, and it is a trying 
moment for every father and mother when they see their 
children beginning to separate themselves and assert their 
own individuality. But this is necessary and best for 
children. Ripened seeds must drop off the tree, or there 
could be no more trees. 

Mary’s question drew from Jesus his first recorded ut- 
terance: ‘‘How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that 
I must be about my Father’s business?’’ This reply is 
the kernel of this anecdote, the vital germ that kept it 
alive and caused it to blossom out in the gospel. Already 
Jesus was becoming aware of his divinity and his mission 
in the world. His life was now perfectly set to the music 
of the Father’s will. 

The parents of Jesus understood not this first recorded 
utterance—a sad commentary and mournful proph- 
ecy. How often has he been misunderstood and misrepre- 
sented so that his light has been turned to darkness? He 
came unto his own and his own received him not. And 
still the Christian world misunderstands him, and very 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 129 


imperfectly do the clearest Christian minds penetrate into 
the depth and power of his meaning. His simple words are 
larger than our largest thoughts of life and love. 


7. Tue Carpenter. Mark 6:3 


‘‘Ts not this the carpenter?’’ Yes, that is just who it 
was. The question was asked by his townsmen in derision 
and scorn as though it would place a stigma upon Jesus 
that would forever discredit him:as a prophet, but the 
designation has ever since been worn by him as a mark 
of honor. Unconsciously they placed on his brow one of 
his brightest crowns. 

It is a startling fact, which even after nineteen hundred 
years has not lost its wonder, that the Saviour of the world 
was a carpenter. This is not what the Jews expected, and 
it is not what we would have expected. They looked for 
a econquerer to break the power of Rome and possibly we 
would have looked for a great scholar or statesman, but 
God’s ways are not as our ways and his Son came neither 
as the one nor as the other but as a carpenter. 

This question is the only gleam of light we have from 
the life of Jesus from the twelfth to the thirtieth year of 
his age. Of this long period comprising more than half 
of his life not a word is recorded to tell us what he was 
doing except this word carpenter. But as an artist with 
a single sweep of his pencil or brush will sometimes draw 
the outline of his picture, so this word draws in outline 
the life of Jesus during this period. It sketches the life 
of one who did not separate himself from his fellowmen 
and from his home folk but knit himself into the humblest 
human relations. It shows us a common toiler working 
at an ordinary trade and living contentedly in honest pov- 
erty. There is color enough in this single word to paint a 
complete picture of Christ’s early years. It is worth more 
than all the apocryphal gospels that are full of absurd sto- 
ee his youth. We may well be thankful for such a 
word. 

The outstanding fact in these silent years of Jesus was 
that he was a producer; he was not an idle consumer but 
he added to the world’s stock of goods. There were more 
and better houses in Nazareth or more ploughs and ox- 


130 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


vokes on the surrounding farms because he lived and toiled. 
We are sure that his trade was well learned and that every- 
thing that left his shop displayed the most thorough and 
finished workmanship. He who could build a star and 
sweep the orbit of a planet, whose hand had left its finish- 
ing touch on every grass-blade and dewdrop, could also lay 
off his angles and strike his circles true, and he would 
mortise timbers or shape ox-yokes so that they would ren- 
der the best service and would last. His work never 
needed to be done over after him, he left no loose joints 
to be tightened up or rough places to be smoothed down. 
Every one knew that he could be trusted, and his work 
bore an unsurpassed reputation and commanded the high- 
est prices. 

All this was a true part of his ministry by which he 
helped to save the world from cold and hunger, and it was 
a fitting preparation for that spiritual carpentry by which 
he was to join humanity together arid build a kingdom that 
would stand forever. 

We need more of this spirit of faithful service in useful 
lines in these days when there is much slovenly work done 
in every trade and profession and so many are living in 
idleness and luxury on wealth that other hands have 
earned. Hvery one should be a productive worker by hand 
or head and thereby contribute to the wealth and welfare 
of the world. ‘‘The thistle that grows in thy path,’’ says 
Carlyle, ‘‘dig it out, that a blade of grass, or a drop of 
nourishing milk, may grow there instead. The waste 
cotton-shrub, gather its waste white down, spin it, weave 
it: that in place of idle litter there may be folded webs, 
and the naked skin of man be covered.’’ 

Paul commanded that ‘‘if any would not work, neither 
should he eat’’ (II Thess. 3:10), and the Saviour of the 
world, who ‘‘goeth before’’ us in all things, set us a noble 
and inspiring example at this point during these eighteen 
silent years. | 


CHAPTER IIT 


FIRST YEAR: THE EARLY JUDEAN MINISTRY 
YEAR OF OBSCURITY 


The thirty years of preparation have done their work, 
and Jesus is now ready to step out into his public min- 
istry. The first year was spent chiefly in Judea down in 
the Jordan valley and in and around Jerusalem with a 
visit to Galilee. It contained the striking opening events 
of the ministry and proceeded encouragingly though 
quietly so that it may be designated the year of obscurity. 
Dates cannot be definitely determined, but the probable 
dates are that the baptism of Jesus occurred in the fall of 
A. D. 26 and that the first year closed with his withdrawal 
from Judea for Galilee in December A. D. 27. 


1. A Great RevivaL MEETING 
Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3: 1-20 


A great revival meeting was going on down in the Jor- 
dan valley. The preacher was John the Baptist. Nothing 
had been heard of him for thirty years during which he 
was growing up in the hill country of Judea in that se- 
elusion and silence in which all great things must grow. 
John was a Nazarite, we might call him a monk, a man 
who had withdrawn from human society and for years had 
ae a solitary life in the rocky regions around the Dead 

ea. 

What was the meaning of this strange life? It was a 
reaction against the formal hypocritical religion of his 
time. Religion among the Jews had gone to seed and 
husks. There was no sap in it, there were no green leaves 
and ripening fruit on it, but only empty pods. Jewish 
orthodoxy had thus become a huge heap of dry wood and 
straw: John the Baptist was the spark that set this tinder 

131 


132 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


on fire; he was the Martin Luther of this reformation. 
Disgusted with Pharisaic hypocrisy he had turned from 
the Jewish church into the wilderness, not that he might 
have less religion, but more; that out there in the solitude 
far from men he might get close to God as did Moses in 
the mount. 

At length, being filled with the Spirit, John suddenly 
emerged from obscurity and appeared on the banks of the 
Jordan where he began to preach. His striking personal- 
ity, rough haircloth robe bound around his loins with a 
leather strap, uncut hair, flowing beard, and deep-set 
burning eye, suggested a-prophet. The news reached Jeru- 
salem that there was a prophet down at the Jordan, and 
the crowds went pouring down the steep rocky roads to 
hear him. 

What was the secret of the preacher’s power? Not his 
manner of dress and appearance. LHecentricities never 
made a Martin Luther or a John Knox. Long hair does 
not make a long head. John the Baptist was a sincere 
soul touched with the fire of God. He had gotten rid of 
empty forms and conventionalities and was speaking out 
his genuine beliefs and deep fiery emotions. Instead of 
mumbling traditional dogmas he spoke living truth from 
the heart to the heart. ‘Such preaching created a tre- 
mendous sensation and drew people in great crowds. 

The burning message of John was repentance as a prep- 
aration for the Messiah who was about to appear. The 
Greek word means ‘‘a change of mind,’’ a mental act that 
reverses the mind and will from sin towards righteousness 
and God. It is thus in its root not an emotion but a voli- 
tion which we can exercise and for which we are respon- 
sible. Such repentance prepares the way for Christ in 
the world and in our hearts and lives. 

John also quoted Isaiah to prove his message had an- 
cient authority and divine sanction. The truth he was 
preaching was not revolutionary but evolutionary. Isaiah 
was the original; John was the echo; Isaiah declared the 
message of repentance; John interpreted and applied it. 

John also instituted the rite of baptism as an outer sign 
of this inner change of mind. The outer sign represents 
and confirms the inner act and roots it deeper in the soul 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 133 


and life. It is a public pledge that commits one to the new 
life and makes it easier to maintain one’s loyalty to it. 


2. Tue Baptism or JESUS 
Matthew 3:18-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3: 21-22 


At this point in the preaching of John Jesus appeared 
in his audience. Probably word of John’s ministry had 
reached him in the seclusion of Nazareth and he knew 
that his hour was come. He offered himself for baptism, 
but John hesitated to administer the ordinance, saying, ‘‘I 
have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”’ 
Jesus pressed the point, saying, ‘‘Suffer it to be so now: 
for thus it beecometh us to fulfil all righteousness,’’ and 
then John yielded and administered the rite. 

There was some reason why Jesus submitted to this or- 
dinance. It was not a fictitious performance done for mere 
show, but a genuine baptism. We must take this view of 
the whole life of Jesus. There was no acting or theatrical 
display in it, but everything was real, just what it 
purported to be. His growth in wisdom was a true pro- 
cess of education. His temptation was not a sham battle, 
but a veritable fight. | 

Baptism was a symbol of repentance and cleansing from 
sin, and in this sense Jesus did not need it and could not 
have accepted it, for he had no sins to repent of; but it 
was also a sign of entering the kingdom of God and a 
mark of consecration to his service, and in this sense Jesus 
could and did receive it. He himself first did what he 
asked others to do and wore this badge of loyalty to the 
kingdom of heaven. 

This example of our Lord shows us the necessity of 
religious ordinances and the duty of observing them. 
Objections are made to religious rites as being unnecessary 
mechanical forms: only spirit is life. Undoubtedly the 
inner spirit is the life of religion, but can we have the 
inner life as fully and richly without the external form 
and means? The water is more important than the cup, 
but if we refuse the cup shall we get any water? We 
may have ordinances without religion, but not religion 
without ordinances. Dangerous as ordinances are, we 


134 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


must have them, and they that reject them cannot quote 
the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jesus came up out of that baptismal water a new man 
into a new world. The heavens opened and the Holy Spirit 
descended upon him and filled him with all the fulness of 
God. Then came a voice from heaven, saying, ‘‘Thou art 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’’ This prob- 
ably marked the moment when Jesus became fully eon- 
scious of his divinity and Messiahship. Into the mystery 
of this moment we cannot enter and know not what glad 
recognition of the Father and what tremendous sense of 
responsibility and what mighty throb of joy he experienced 
in this epochal hour. 

This great blessing came out of his obedience in receiv- 
ing baptism. Jesus probably had no expectation of this 
gift when he offered himself for this ordinance. He was 
then simply doing his duty in fulfilling all righteousness. 
But he faithfully obeyed it, and, lo, this humble duty sud- 
denly blossomed and bore this wondrous heavenly fruit! 
Had Jesus never gone down into that baptismal water, he 
never would have come up under an opened sky with the 
Holy Spirit streaming down upon him, and God never 
would have pronounced him his Son. We never ean tell 
how near we are to unexpected and wonderful blessing 
when we are performing a duty, even the lowest and» 
humblest. 


3. THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS 
Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13 


Immediately after his baptism Jesus was led up into the 
wilderness to be tempted. Baptism and temptation are here 
crowded close together. Scareely had the voice from 
heaven died away when a whisper was heard from hell. 
There are sudden and violent changes of weather in the 
spiritual world. The purest deed may be bordered with 
temptation; our finest moods may be marred by an evil 
suggestion. When God is especially close to us, Satan 
is nearby waiting for his chance. Out of the baptismal 
benediction of the Father, Jesus stepped into a desperate 
struggle with the devil. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT star 


Jesus was led up of the Spirit to be tempted. We are 
not to run into temptation of our own accord. We may 
not hunt the devil or go into his den ourselves. The path 
of duty as we are led of the Spirit will take us into temp- 
tation enough. 

It was when Jesus was hungry and emaciated with forty 
days’ fasting and was reduced to the lowest point of phys- 
ical exhaustion that this temptation struck him. Satan 
did not assault him at his strongest moment but at his 
frailest hour when his vitality was at its lowest ebb. Satan 
knows a man’s weakest time and waits for it. There are 
dangerous low tides in the strongest life, and the best man 
has his hours when he would not dare to meet the devil. 
These irresolute moments are often connected with bodily 
exhaustion and nervous depression, and we need to keep 
a constant grip on God that when we are weak we may be 
strong. 

What was the state of mind of Jesus at this time and 
what was the meaning of this conflict? He had just come 
from his baptism which probably marked the moment 
when he became clearly conscious of his Messiahship and 
~ divinity and supernatural power. What would be the first, 
most natural, strongest and most deadly temptation in the 
possession of such power? ‘To use it selfishly for personal 
ends. This is a temptation that always arises in connec- 
tion with the sudden acquisition of power, such as great. 
wealth or high office. 

The question pressing on the mind of Jesus may have 
been, How would he use his divine power? For personal 
comfort and aggrandizement? or only in the service of 
God for the salvation of the world? Using his power in 
the first way would prostitute it to personal ambition and 
would prove his ruin, and using it the other way would lead 
by way of the cross to the fulfillment of his mission as the 
Saviour of the world. Satan saw this psychological moment 
and was there to try to push Jesus off the edge of this 
precipice inte the bottomless pit. 

The three temptations were all along this line of sugges- 
tion. To make bread out of stone was to do that which 
was harmless in itself and was only providing proper food 
for the body and so it came appareled in light as an inno- 


136 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


cent and reasonable and right thing to do. All sin prac- 
tices this art of clothing itself in the garb of innocence 
so that hardly ever does a man do wrong until he has 
persuaded himself that the wrong is right. Yet this way 
of getting bread on the part of Jesus would have been to 
distrust and renounce his Father’s providence in supply- 
ing his needs and to resort to his own power. Our senses 
and appetites are especially points of attack where temp- 
tation may assail us, sensuality is one of our commonest 
and most deadly sins, and at these points we need to be on 
our guard and keep on the whole armour of God. 

Jesus saw through the_false innocence of this proposal 
into its heart of disloyalty and disobedience and he struck 
it down with a sure stroke of the sword of the Spirit. 

The second temptation to leap from the pinnacle of the 
temple was a proposal that Jesus should by this sensa- 
tional act gain sudden popular applause and win quick 
support for his mission. It was a suggestion that he could 
fly from the appointed path of obedience and service off 
at any wild caprice and that God. would keep him safe. 
The same temptation comes to us when we think to violate 
natural laws, as in some forms of faith cure, and expect 
God to keep us from harm. In such cases we want God to 
keep us, not in all his, but in all our ways. Jesus saw 
through this disloyal proposal and pierced it so that it lay 
slain at his feet. 

The third temptation was an offer to Jesus by which he 
could win his kingdom in a moment by one little act and 
even get the world by a word. Perhaps the meaning of 
the suggestion that Jesus should worship Satan was that 
he was to resort to Satan’s means, such as the sword and 
wealth and power, to establish his kingdom as other con- 
querors had done. Might not he also successfully do 
what Alexander and Caesar had done in their swift vic- 
torious campaigns and thus avoid the slow and tragic way 
of the cross? 

The sword is Satan’s own weapon and every night he 
sleeps on the pillows of power: why not put this quick in- 
strument into the hands of Jesus? How strong is the 
temptation with us to take the short eut to our ends and 
to do the devil’s bidding in using worldly means to reach 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 137 


worldly ambitions? We want the kingdom at a stroke and 
are in danger of selling our souls to get it. | 

Jesus felt the full force of this powerful temptation. 
He gazed upon the splendid prospect of that outspread 
world. He saw how short was the step that promised the 
kingdom. It was a perilous hour with him and his very 
mission as the Son of God trembled in the balance. Then 
turning in resistless might, he tore the mask from his 
tempter, revealed him in his hideous nakedness as Satan, 
bade him from his presence and declared his eternal alle- 
gianee and loyalty to God. 

The Son of God was still untouched; not one fleck had 
spotted the immaculate whiteness of his soul. And the 
devil, foiled, defeated and crushed, fled and vanished into 
the infinite darkness whence he came. 

We are to mark the means by which Jesus resisted these 
temptations: ‘‘It is written.’’ ‘‘It is written.’’ ‘‘It is 
written.’’ The Word of God was his shield, and by it every 
flaming dart was quenched. He conquered by the ordinary 
means of grace. He did not call into action his divinity, 
but he bore this temptation in his humanity. He was 
tempted as we are, and he conquered as we may. 

We need no new weapons to resist Satan, for still ‘‘it is 
written.’’ The old Bible furnishes shields and swords to 
match all the temptations of modern life. The devil has 
invented no new weapon since the ones he used in the gar- 
den of Eden. 

Yet Jesus did not conquer by merely quoting Scrip- 
ture, for Satan quoted Scripture too. It was by his grip 
on the realities back of the written words that he won the 
victory. In proportion as we believe and feed upon these 
truths will they strengthen and inspire us and then when 
we resist the devil he will flee from us; and when he is 
gone, the angels of God will come. 


4. How tHe Kinepom Startep To Grow 
John 1:35-51 
From his temptation in the wilderness Jesus came 


strong in spirit and wearing the victor’s crown and re- 
turned to the Jordan where John was still preaching. On 


138 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


seeing Jesus John exclaimed, ‘‘Behold the Lamb of God!”’ 
and pointed his own disciples to the new Prophet. Here 
was a preacher in the flood tide of his popularity and suc- 
eess turning his own disciples away from himself to an- 
other. John was now the central figure in all Judea and 
all eyes were turned to him in expectation. It seemed 
that a splendid crown was within his grasp. Why not an- 
nounce himself as the Messiah? Yet he deliberately re- 
jected it and placed it upon the brow of his rival. He ap- 
preciated the supreme and solitary greatness of Jesus and 
cast his crown at his feet. ‘‘He must increase,’’ he said, 
‘‘but I must decrease. .He that cometh from above is 
above all.’’ 

Two disciples turned from John and followed Jesus, 
Andrew and John the son of Zebedee. To their inquiry, 
‘‘Master, where dwellest thou?’’ the answer of Jesus was, 
‘““Come and see.’’ From ten o’clock in the morning until 
the evening shadows fell, Jesus and these two men en- 
gaged in earnest conversation concerning the Messiah and 
his kingdom; and when they separated Jesus had bound 
these first disciples to himself with cords of faith and 
friendship that thereafter never broke. 

There was no revival meeting or religious excitement in 
connection with these conversions, but in the privacy and 
quietness of a personal interview these men gave their 
hearts to Christ. It is not necessary to engage in public 
preaching and sway great audiences in order to save men; 
a private word may be equally effective in drawing a soul 
into the kingdom. 

Jesus gained these two disciples himself, and now these 
disciples started out to gain others. Andrew found Simon 
his brother and brought him to Jesus. If John found his 
brother James at the same time, the number of the disci- 
ples doubled the first day. Andrew, full of the joy of his 
own discovery, hastened to his brother with the announce- 
ment, ‘‘We have found the Messiah!’’ That was glad 
news to a Jew, and Andrew could not keep it to himself, 
but immediately imparted it to his brother, ‘‘and he 
brought him to Jesus.”’ 

Jesus found Andrew, Andrew found Simon: this is the 
way the kingdom grows, each converted soul finding the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 139 


next one. Jesus began the process, and his own converts 
earried it on. Christians are Christ multiplied and con- 
tinued. Andrew found his brother, and kinship and 
friendship are natural lines of connection along which the 
gospel still works. Ties of blood are powerful cords draw- 
ing others into the kingdom. 

Jesus looked upon Simon with searching insight and 
said, ‘‘Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called 
Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.’’ Peter means 
rock, and the new name described the new nature he was 
to receive through his fellowship with Jesus. Unstable 
and impulsive on the surface, there was yet lying deep in 
Peter a bed of rock that became a foundation of solid 
steadfastness in the kingdom of God. There are too many 
Christians of clay: Christ wants Christians of rock. 

Andrew remained an obscure disciple, while Peter be- 
gan to shine with brilliance and became conspicuous and 
forever famous, the one disciple revolving around the 
other as a mere satellite and known as ‘‘Simon Peter’s 
brother.’’ Yet it was the obscure brother that drew the 
more brilliant one within the attraction of the Sun of 
Righteousness and thus made him luminous. We may not 
be flaming apostles ourselves, but we may draw to Christ 
others who will be burning and shining lights, 

On the next day Jesus started for Galilee, and pres- 
ently he fell in with Philip and said unto him, ‘‘Follow 
me.’’ Phillip joined the little company of disciples, and 
thus it grew even as it passed along the public road. 

Again the process of one convert finding another started 
and ‘‘Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, we 
have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the proph- 
ets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’’ This 
speech shows that Philip was a student of the Scriptures 
and knew what to look for in the Messiah and that he 
found these marks fulfilled in Jesus. 

But this announcement that sprang from a heart of joy 
and full of good intention instantly struck a snag and 
stirred up prejudice in Nathanael’s mind. ‘‘Can there 
any good thing come out of Nazareth?’’ He was from 
Cana (John 21:2), a neighboring village, and doubtless 
shared the prejudice that one town often entertains against 


140 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


another. So he met the gladdest announcement that could 
come to a Jew with a rebuff born of petty local jealousy 
and pride. 

Prejudice in its myriad forms is still one of the greatest 
obstructions in the way of the gospel. Prejudice against 
Christian faith on account of its mysteries and difficul- 
ties, against the church on account of the inconsistencies 
of its members, many are the objections a prejudiced per- 
son can raise against the call of Christ, especially if se- 
eretly he does not want to follow him. 

Had Philip undertaken to argue the point with Nathan- 
ael he might have gotten the worst of the argument; at 
least he would probably only have confirmed Nathanael 
in his prejudice. But his simple answer was, ‘‘Come and 
see.’’? Nathanael acted on this reasonable proposal, and, 
after a brief interview with Jesus and a personal expe- 
rience of his fellowship, he exclaimed, ‘‘Rabbi, thou art 
the Son of God; thou art the king of Israel.’? What no 
controversy could have done, simple seeing for himself 
did do. 

This is still Christ’s own proposal for the solution of all 
our doubts and difficulties. Fellowship and obedience are 
ever the way out of these into clearness and sureness of 
faith. Let us honestly go to Christ and try his doctrine 
and way of life, and we shall know that he is of God and 
accept him as our Lord and King. 

Thus we see how the kingdom began to grow. It is in- 
structive to study how Christ started his work. He did 
not begin and carry on his work, as we would have ex- 
pected, with a great spectacular program and campaign. 
He did not go to Jerusalem, the civil and religious metrop- 
olis, and there build a great tabernacle seating five or ten 
thousand people and preach to packed audiences. On the 
contrary he went into the cbscure parts of the country and 
engaged in his work quietly and privately, trying to keep 
down excitement and avoid crowds. Even when working 
miracles he endeavored to prevent their being blazed 
abroad as a means of creating wonder and drawing peo- 
ple through curiosity. He preferred to meet the people 
in small groups. It seemed that he would rather sit down 
and talk with one man than preach to five thousand. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 141 


It is true that he did at times attract great multitudes 
and preach in the open air. But it is remarkable that no 
conversion is recorded as having taken place under this 
public preaching. Jesus picked up most of his converts 
through private interviews. When he preached to a 
throng he might not get anybody, but when he talked with 
one he was sure of his man. 

All growth takes place by gradual aceretions. It is thus 
that Christ’s kingdom grows. As the process of erystalli- 
zation proceeds through a liquid atom by atom, as a tree 
grows cell by cell, so does the line of conversion move 
through the home and across the country and around the 
world. The method of Jesus is that of growth, first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear; it 
is that of the leaven that spreads slowly through the whole 
mass. As Christ found Philip and Philip found Nathan- 
ael so are we to keep adding link to link in the lengthen- 
ing chain of his kingdom until it binds his first with his 
final coming. 


5. Water TurnEp Into Wine. John 2:1-11 


Arriving in Galilee, Jesus went with his disciples to the 
village of Cana, where a wedding was being celebrated and 
his mother was there. Possibly the wedding was the oe- 
easion of this visit, and it is deeply significant that he was 
present and participated in such a joyous ceremony. By 
this act he at once set himself in bold contrast with his 
forerunner, John the Baptist. 

Jesus was not a recluse and an ascetic, separating him- 
self from his human kind, but he was a man of the world, 
mingling freely in all its currents and sharing in its varied 
scenes and festivities. The Christian is not to keep him- 
self out of the world, though he is to keep himself un- 
spotted from the world. ‘To be saved is not to be sad. 

The joy of the occasion was suddenly halted: the wine 
failed. The wine of this world always does fail. Any joy 
that rests on a material basis is built on sand and cannot 
last. The mother of Jesus was quick to sense the situation 
and with delicate tact she said to him, ‘‘They have no 
wine.’’ This gentle hint of the mother drew from the 
son a strange reply. While it contains no slightest discour- 


142 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


tesy, yet it was an intimation to her that he must judge 
of the time and way of his own action and could not use 
his power at the suggestion of another. We must beware 
of the faintest suggestion in our prayers of dictating to 
God and must never try to hurry him up. 

The mother, however, was satisfied with the answer, 
doubtless hearing between the words more than was said, 
and with beautiful trust directed the servants, ‘‘ Whatso- 
ever he saith unto you, do it.’’ This is the bond that 
should bind us to Christ, and no surer ground of obedience 
and no finer fellowship can we find than simply to do what 
he bids us. . } 

The moment for action came and at the command of 
Jesus the servants first filled with water the six large stone 
jars standing by and then drew out and bore to the ruler 
of the feast wine which he pronounced of the best quality. 
At some point in this process ‘‘the conscious water saw its 
God and blushed,’’ the water reddened into wine. Into 
the inner mechanism of this miracle we cannot penetrate, 
but it is no more mysterious than the chemistry by which 
water is turned into wine inside the grape. Jesus did in 
a moment what the sun does in a month. 

The miracles of Jesus were all acted parables, forms of 
the truth cast in the visible and vivid molds of concrete 
deeds. When the wine of this world fails and life looks 
dark, Jesus can work a transformation that will be as wine 
to our spirits. How often as we look out over the world 
and see its widespread misery and sorrow can we say of 
its millions, ‘‘They have no wine’’? Somewhere there must 
be refreshment for its thirsting people, and the same hand 
that furnished the wine at that wedding in Cana ean sup- 
ply the spiritual wine of his wisdom and grace that is 
abundant and rich enough for all the world. 

In giving us this blessing Jesus makes use of the means 
we have and gives us a part in the process. The servants 
filled the jar with water and drew out the wine. Had they 
put no water in, no wine would have come out. God has a 
part for us in all his dealings with us, and in all the bless- 
ings he gives us we are co-workers with him. 

The wine proved to be of such good quality that the 
ruler exclaimed, ‘‘Thou hast kept the good wine until 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 143 


now.’’ Christ always gives us the best he has. He offers 
us no cheap gifts, palms off on us no adulterated goods, but 
gives us the best his market affords, and his market is the 
universe. The devil gives his best wine first, but at last it 
biteth like a serpent; there is a snake in the bottom of his 
cup. The first end of sin is always pleasant: it is the 
last end that stings. The Christian life grows better and 
better and it will end with the wine of heaven. 

In this beginning of his miracles Jesus ‘‘manifested 
forth his glory.’’ Water changed into wine is a symbol 
of all his work. He transmutes sin into penitence, unbe- 
lief into faith, the vileness of wickedness into the beauty 
of holiness, and sinners into saints. 

The chemist takes scum and dross and transforms thent 
into exquisite perfume and the most beautiful colors. The 
artist takes coarse materials and transfigures them into 
masterpieces of painting, and the sculptor turns a block of 
stone into a white angel. The most brilliant diamond is 
only common coal transformed into a blazing jewel shoot- 
ing vivid flashes of light. 

All that Christ touches he transforms and transfigures. 
He brings the best possibilities out of men. Under his 
divine sunshine and quickening breath the wilderness shall 
rejoice and blossom as the rose and become qa new Par- 
adise of God. 


99 


6. First CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE. John 2: 13-22. 

Jesus sojourned for a few days in Capernaum and then 
returned to Judea and we next find him at the first Pass- 
over he attended in his ministry. Holy city as it was by 
ealling and privilege, Jerusalem was no congenial place 
for Jesus. 

We shall let the Italian novelist, Giovanni Papini, paint 
the picture for us in his Life of Christ: ‘‘ Jerusalem like 
all capitals—great sewers to which fiow the refuse, the out- 
easts, the rubbish of the nations—is inhabited by a mob 
of frivolous, elegant, idle, skeptical and indifferent people, 
by a ceremonious patrician class who have kept only the 
tradition of ritual and the sterile rancor of their deca- 
dence; by an aristocracy of property owners and specula- 
tors who belong to the herd of Mammon, and by a rebel- 


144 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ious, restless, ignorant crowd, controlled only by the su- 
perstition of the Temple and the fear of the foreigner’s 
sword. Jerusalem was not fit soil for the sowing of Jesus.”’ 

When Jesus entered the saered precincts of the temple, 
he found a terrible desecration of his Father’s house. Im- 
mense numbers of animals were needed for the feast and 
offerings, and worshipers bought these in Jerusalem. There 
were also brokers for the exchange of the various kinds of 
foreign money into shekels for the temple offerings. All 
this business, attended as it was with gross evils, had in- 
vaded the temple court. The crowds and confusion, the 
cattle and merchandise and traffic, the clamorous hawking 
and haranguing of the noisy Oriental venders, the cheat- 
ing and frauds, were a wicked and intolerable nuisance 
and desecration of the place of worship. The holy house of 
prayer had been turned into a den of thieves. 

No associations that jar upon our sense of propriety 
and reverence should be allowed to invade and gather 
around our sanctuary. The church is exposed to the same 
evil in a more insidious and dangerous way through the 
intrusion of a worldly spirit into its worship and mem- 
bership. When the selfishness and strife and unrighteous- 
ness of the world get into the church, it is no more a fit 
dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of Christ and there 
the Shekinah ceases to shine. 

Jesus looked upon the shocking scene with painful aver- 
sion and holy indignation. He was a young man, an un- 
known Galilean, with no express authority to interfere, 
for the matter was under the supervision of the priests, 
but there are moments when petty points of order and 
mere technicalities must give way before some fundamental 
principle and mighty impulse of righteousness. 

Jesus felt that this hour had come. The whole thing 
was broadly and glaringly illegal and should be ended at 
once. Picking up some cords and tying them together into 
a whip, he drove the animals out of the temple; then turn- 
ing upon the money changers, he upset their tables, scat- 
tering their coins upon the marble pavement; lastly he 
ordered the dove dealers with their cages to leave, com- 
pleting the work with the admonition, ‘‘Make not my Fath- 
er’s house a house of merchandise.’’ 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 145 


The sudden attack created consternation among the 
unholy traffickers, and the reform was accomplished in a 
moment. What was the explanation of this amazing act? 
Guilty consciences on the one side, and holy earnestness on 
the other. These noisy venders knew that they were dese- 
erating the temple, and they quailed before and slunk 
away from the lofty personality of Jesus, ‘‘the starry light 
that shone in his eyes and the divine majesty that beamed 
from his features.’’ 

The incident shows the power of one brave man who is 
right against a multitude who are wrong. Jesus was not 
only gentle with divine tenderness, but he was also inflex- 
ible on every point of righteousness and out of him could 
flash divine wrath. He was no pure pacifist, but was a 
true soldier of God. In remembering that he is the Lamb, 
we should not forget that he is also the Lion. 

This cleansing of the temple brought about the first 
elash of Jesus with the Jews and started the conflict that 
finally resulted in his death at their hands. As soon as 
they recovered from their astonishment at his temerity, 
they began to take note of this unknown reformer and de- 
manded that he furnish them with a certificate of his au- 
thority in the form of a sign. 

Jesus promptly answered, ‘‘ Destroy this temple, and in 
three days I will raise it up.’’ This enigmatical answer 
may have been accompanied with a gesture pointing to his 
body, but the Jews understood him to speak of the temple 
and they were still further astonished and indignant at his 
audacity. The temple stood as the very embodiment of, 
their national religion and patriotism and pride, the holiest 
spot and structure on earth, and Jesus could not have 
made a more unpatriotic and unorthodox, radical and revo- 
lutionary utterance. But there are times when it is nec- 
essary to shock crass bigotry and corrupt ecclesiasticism 
with startling statements of truth. Such men as these 
Pharisees and scribes can feel only the thrust of a sword, 
and they have not yet all passed from us. 

The answer of Jesus had primary reference to the temple 
of his body, and thus early did he plant the rock of his res- 
urrection in his life-plan as a foundation stone; but it 
may also have had a further reference to the temple itself 


146 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


which he did sweep from that mountaintop as an exclusive 
place of worship when he taught that men should every- 
where worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The 
mere place is unimportant. 

The iron of this saying entered into the souls of these 
Jews, for they brought his declaration against him at his 
trial and coarsely flung it at him on the cross. 


7. A DistineuisHeD Nigut Visitor. John 2 : 23-3 : 21 


It is night and Jesus is closeted with one man. Two of 
our Lord’s greatest discourses were delivered 1o single 
hearers, Nicodemus and the woman of Samaria, and with 
the great Preacher one soul was a great audience. This 
first recorded discourse of Jesus is compact with the great 
doctrines and duties of salvation, and his theology was com- 
plete from the beginning. 

The inquirer who sought this interview is an interesting 
and attractive character. He was a Pharisee and a rabbi, 
a member of the Sanhedrin and a man of wealth. He was 
therefore a man of the highest religious orthodoxy, of un- 
blemished reputation, of profound learning, of influential 
social position, and from every point of view one of the 
foremost men in Jerusalem. 

Having seen the miracles of Jesus he came to him by 
night. The night visit has been used against him as im- 
plying timidity or something worse, but this is not a sure 
inference. There may have been good reasons why it was 
convenient for him to see Jesus at this hour, and yet it 
must be admitted that through his whole course Nicodemus 
at least displayed that discretion which is the better part 
of valor, and it was not until after the crucifixion that he 
came out boldly as a follower of the Nazarene. The re- 
markable thing, however, was that this prominent rabbi 
should visit the obscure Galilean, who had so fearlessly 
attacked existing institutions, at all. 

Nicodemus opened the interview by paying a remark- 
able compliment to Jesus. He addressed him as rabbi and 
declared him to be a teacher come from God. This shows 
that he was already profoundly impressed with the mys- 
terious young rabbi from the north. Doubtless his thought 
was that, as an orthodox Jew and conspicuous rabbi him- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 147 


self, he was entitled to a chief place in the kingdom Jesus 
was proclaiming and that all he had to do was to offer 
himself and be accepted. 

And what a splendid convert and powerful accession to 
the cause of the lowly Nazarene he would have made? 
Would not an allianee with such an influential rabbi have 
in it the promise and potency of speedy success? The 
temptations of Jesus did not end in the wilderness, and it 
may be that this perilous thought pressed against his mind 
on this memorable night. 

How did Jesus receive this distinguished visitor? With 
the bold and brusque declaration that he must be born 
again. He took no notice of his flattering compliment; he 
paid no deference to his orthodoxy and learning and social 
standing, and made no bid for his support. He no more 
relaxed the principles of his kingdom for this wealthy and 
powerful rabbi than he did for illiterate and profane 
fishermen. On the contrary he insisted on a new birth as a 
necessary condition of entering the kingdom of God and 
inflexibly applied this principle to Nicodemus himself. 
This eminent doctor of divinity stood high in the church, 
he was learned in the Scriptures, no stain was upon his 
professional robe, but he was not fit for the kingdom of 
God. 

What chance was there for this young Galilean to make 
headway with his cause in the world when he started out 
by setting up such formidable conditions and boldly con- 
fronting if not affronting such a possible convert as Nico- 
demus with such terms? The splendid audacity of Jesus 
here flashes out. He was no time-server but set himself 
against all the currents of his age. 

Nicodemus was puzzled, although he ought not to have 
been, for his Old Testament tells of a new heart and the 
rabbis had a saying that a convert is ‘‘like a child new- 
born.’’? Yet Nicodemus did not know what Jesus was 
talking about and displayed surprising and lamentable ig- 
norance, and there are still many surprising people in the 
church. Jesus explained the new birth as one of the spirit 
and brought it into line with the natural law that like 
must come from like, flesh from flesh, and spirit from 
spirit. Nicodemus was still perplexed, and Jesus ex- 


148 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


pressed surprise that a master in Israel should not know 
these things. 

Jesus proceeded to set forth his authority for his teach- 
ing. He was not a mere philosopher or theorist spinning 
out personal opinions and guesses at truth; neither was he 
teaching knowledge that he had gained at second hand; 
but ‘‘we speak,’’ he declared, ‘‘that we do know and tes- 
tify that we have seen.’’ Jesus Christ knew what he was 
talking about, and on the subject of the kingdom of God 
he is ever the greatest expert and highest authority. 

Presently Jesus was the only speaker. Nicodemus had 
become silent and sat as a rapt listener. Jesus rose to 
lofty and ever loftier heights.. As he sat with this soli- 
tary hearer in the silence of the night he uttered some of 
his sublimest sayings.: Presently he uttered that saying 
that is the richest and most splendid verse in the Bible: 
‘‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life.’’ This sweeps the unbroken 
horizon of salvation. It mirrors the whole sky of redemp- 
tion, thickest with stars. It gathers up all the notes of the 
gospel and strikes them in one rich massive chord. It is - 
full of infinities and eternities. It is ineffably bright with 
divine love, and yet it is edged with divine wrath. Heaven 
is in it, and so is hell. Had we only this one utterance of 
Jesus and verse of the Bible it would have in it virtue to 
save the world. 

Jesus ended the interview with the practical admonition, 
‘‘He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds 
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.’’ 
‘‘He that doeth truth cometh to the light,’’ said Jesus to 
the man that came to him by night, a possible hint that he 
should have come and that we all should come to him 
publicly in the day. 


8. A Convert rrom Low Lire. John 4: 4-26 


At this point Herod threw John the Baptist into prison, 
and Jesus quietly withdrew from Judea and started for 
Galilee, not because he lacked courage but because he pos- 
sessed prudence. His work was not yet done and the time 
for his final conflict had not yet come. 

_ It was while he was on his way with his disciples up 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 149 


through Samaria that he held another private interview 
and delivered another great discourse to an audience of 
one; this time with a woman. Nicodemus was a great and 
good man, but this was an obscure and disreputable woman. 
Christ was no respecter of persons, and any soul is worth 
trying to save and may prove a rough stone that is verily 
an uncut diamond. 

One day at noon Jesus sat tired and thirsty on the stone 
eurb of Jacob’s well. A Samaritan woman came to draw 
water, and the well furnished the text and the woman the 
audience for one of Christ’s greatest sermons. <A well is 
one of the most useful and delightful things in the world. 
We look down into its cool mossy depths and see a pool of 
crystal water, the most beautiful liquid in the world, and 
that well is a center and source of blessing to all around it. 
With such a text in the hands of Jesus we may expect a 
discourse of extraordinary richness and power, for with 
him the simplest and most familiar thing became sugges- 
tive and eloquent of spiritual truth. 

Jesus opened the conversation with delicate tact by ask- 
ing the woman for a drink of water. The woman ex- 
pressed surprise that a Jew would ask a favor of a Sama- 
ritan, for they were of different races and religious denom- 
inations, and narrow minds and bigoted sectarians think 
they should have no dealings with people from whom they 
differ. The woman’s question opened a fine opportunity 
for a controversy, but Jesus passed it by in silence, for 
had he followed up her question he would simply have 
stirred up her race prejudice and partisan zeal, and the 
beginning of controversy is usually the end of edification. 
Jesus said nothing directly on the subject of their racial 
and religious separation, and yet he reached it indirectly 
and in the end closed up this gap. 

Jesus answered the woman that if she knew the gift of 
God she would ask of him and receive living water. The 
woman, like Nicodemus, misunderstood him and supposed 
he was speaking of earthly water. She was surprised and 
perplexed that a travel-stained Jew, who had just himself 
asked for a drink, should have living water. He further 
explained his water as springing from a well within the 
heart as the water of eternal life. 

Jesus had now reached the point where he could go no 


150 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


further without making her conscious of her deepest need, 
and he suddenly thrust a sword into her heart exposing 
her guilty secret. Christ cannot go far with us until he 
touches some sore spot in our lives. The probe must pre- 
cede the cure. Christ must know all about us in order to 
heal us, and our secret sins must be brought to light and 
be cleansed away before his spirit can dwell in us. 

The conversation was now growing uncomfortably close 
and searching, and the woman may have thought it was 
time to change the subject; besides, she thought she saw 
a chance to have a fierce denominational dispute between _ 
the Samaritans and Jews decided. The burning point of 
this dispute was the place of worship and Jerusalem and 
Gerizim were crowned with rival temples, and altar flamed 
defiance at altar. The woman submitted to Jesus the 
question of which was the true place of worship and pos- 
sibly waited for an answer that she hoped would give her 
own mountain a triumphant vindication. 

What did Jesus answer? As he was himself a J ew, and 
all his patriotic and religious associations centered in 
Jerusalem, would he not now declare his own holy city 
to be the only true place of worship and brand the Sa- 
maritan temple as heretical and idolatrous? He did 
nothing of the kind, but gave an answer that was equally 
startling and disappointing, revolutionary and tragical to 
both Jews and Samaritans. ‘‘The hour cometh, when 
neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, shall ye 
worship the Father.’’ He delivered the grandest dis- 
course ever uttered on the universality and spirituality of 
worship. He showed that worship is not a matter of 
mountains and temples, but of heart and spirit. He wiped 
Jerusalem off the map as an exclusive center of worship 
and set worship free and diffused it around the world as 
a universal privilege. 

In this answer he refused to take either side of the de- 
nominational dispute and virtually swept both sides away 
with a broader principle. Jesus today is not interested in 
our little sectarian controversies and wants us to get away 
from them to great things and broader principles. If he 
were to deliver his decision upon many of these theological 
disputes, his judgment might bring disappointment and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 151 


consternation to all sectarians. God is spirit, and place 
and technicality and form count for little with him. He 
looks at the worshiper, not at the place of worship. Wor- 
ship is not like some rare plant that grows only on some 
solitary mountaintop, but it is like grass that grows all 
over the world. If we lift our eyes to the grand mountain 
of worship, we shall lose sight of the little divisive ravines 
that le around our feet. Such worshipers the Father 
seeks. 

The woman had now grown more modest and teachable 
and Jesus perceived that the moment for his self-revelation 
had come. She spoke of the coming of the Messiah, and 
with simple truth and dignity he said, ‘‘I that speak unto 
thee am he.’’ This was Christ’s first and clearest declara- 
tion of his Messiahship. There was no self-conscious van- 
ity in this announcement, as it was the truth and it was 
needful that it should be known. It is not impertinence 
in the sun that it lets its light shine. 

The woman went into the village proclaiming her 
Saviour: she had found her way from Jacob’s well to the 
well of salvation; she went for the water of earth and 
found the water of heaven. 


CHAPTER IV 


SECOND YEAR: THE GALILEAN MINISTRY 
THE YEAR OF POPULARITY 


From Sychar Jesus with hig disciples proceeded to 
Galilee where he carried on his Galilean ministry from 
December, 27, to December, 28, these years and months be- 
ing only approximately correct but sufficiently near the 
truth for practical purposes. 

It was the year of the increasing popularity of Jesus, 
for his teaching found a more congenial soil and a readier 
reception in the rural and industrial region of Galilee 
than among the aristocratic classes and the proud eccle- 
siastical hierarchy of Jerusalem. 

On arriving in Galilee Jesus began ‘‘preaching the 
gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is 
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, 
and believe the gospel’? (Mark 1:14-15). This was his 
first announcement of his mission and it continued to be 
his central message to the end. He came to establish ‘‘the 
kingdom of God,’’ not a racial or national movement but 
a worldwide institution. The kingdom fills a large place 
in his teaching, the term occurring about one hundred and 
ten times in the Gospels, while the church is mentioned 
only twice. 

The idea of the kingdom of God was familiar enough 
among the Jews, as it runs through the Old Testament, 
though in the days of Jesus it had become mixed and 
clouded with apocalyptic elements. The kingdom of God 
is the rule of God in the hearts of men. It has no ge0- 
graphical domain or boundaries and no physical equipment 
in the way of capitals and parliament and armies, its glory 
consists not in pageantry and pomp, and its weapons are 
not carnal, but it is a spiritual fabric and state that exists 

152 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 153 


wherever and in whatever degree men love God and have 
the spirit of heaven. 

The first step that Jesus urged men to take into the 
kingdom was, ‘‘Repent ye, and believe the gospel.’’ 
‘‘Change your mind,’’ as the Greek word translated ‘‘re- 
pent’? means, is what he commanded men to do, a ra- 
tional and voluntary act which we can do. Such an act 
involves a sufficient reason as its motive, and this is found 
in ‘‘the gospel of the kingdom’’ which is good news great 
and joyful enough to convince and move the mind and © 
heart with positive decision and earnest enthusiasm. The 
whole teaching of Jesus revolved around this worthy and 
weighty message and motive, and all the doctrines and 
deeds of his ministry run from this center as radii out to 
the full circumference of the Christian life and of the 
kingdom of God in the world. 

After an incidental work of healing a nobleman’s son 
at Cana (John 4:46-54), Jesus proceeded to Nazareth 
where he opened his public ministry in Galilee. 


1. A Propet Driven Out or His Own Town 
Luke 4: 16-30 


Nazareth was a specially difficult place for Jesus to be- 
gin his ministry, his home town where he had lived for 
nearly thirty years and was familiarly known as the vil- 
lage carpenter. Only about a year before he had closed 
his shop and gone south into Judea, whence marvelous 
stories had presently floated back on the tide of returning 
pilgrims of his cleansing the temple and working miracles 
and appearing as the Messiah. MHis arrival in his own 
home would set all tongues gossiping and create a tremen- 
dous sensation in the sleepy old town. 

He was to preach his first sermon in the village syna- 
gogue in which he had worshiped from childhood. The 
people had known him from boyhood and he knew them. 
As he stood before them he looked into the faces of his 
friends and neighbors, of his former companions, of his 
mother and brothers. We may suppose that he rose to 
preach with the usual diffidence and embarrassment of a 
young minister rising to preach his first sermon in his 


154 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


home church before his relatives and friends. Doubtless 
Mary had a mother’s pride in her son. Jesus felt the deli- 
cacy and knew the danger of the situation, but he began 
his ministry at home, where every one’s duty begins. 

It is instructive to notice how Jesus spent this Sabbath 
day. “‘He entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue 
on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.’’ He went to 
church according to his habit, not according to the weather 
or his wardrobe, but according to the calendar and the 
clock. There were doubtless things there that did not suit 
him. The preaching was unprofitable, intolerably dry and 
dreary, and the whole service was formal and lifeless and 
uncongenial to a true worshiper. The Jewish synagogue 
was a poor church, yet Jesus ‘‘entered as his custom was.’’ 
He did not insist on having an ideal church or none. We 
should not be too sensitive and critical about the syna- 
gogue we attend. The preaching may not be to our taste 
and the prayer meeting seem hopelessly dull, but if on ac- 
count of these things we stay away from church we cannot 
quote the example and sanction of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus not only attended but he also took part in the 
service, not coming simply to receive from it but also to 
contribute to it and thereby add to its interest and profit. 
He chose his first text from the prophet Isaiah. Having 
read the passage (stopping the quotation at a significant 
point), he handed the roll of Scripture to the minister 
and sat down, according to the custom, to speak. All eyes 
were fixed upon him, and a breathless hush fell upon the 
congregation. 

Only a single sentence of the sermon is recorded, its in- 
troductory words: ‘‘Today hath this scripture been ful- 
filled in your ears.’’? This introduction is short and goes 
straight to the mark. It is not one of those long prosy 
introductions that give one a tired feeling before any 
point is reached, but it leaps right into the heart of the 
subject. It illuminates the text with a flash of light; it 
gives an ancient truth a modern application; and it puts 
Jesus himself in the focus of the Old Testament and con- 
verges all its rays on him as their burning center. We 
could wish that more of this sermon had been preserved, 
but we are fortunate in having its text, for it is one of the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 155 


richest Messianic passages in the Bible, striking all the 
chords of Christ’s ministry and full of the music of the 
gospel. 

How was the sermon received? ‘‘ All bare him witness, 
and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out 
of his mouth.’’ This promises well for the congregation, 
showing that it was an attentive audience, and a good ser- 
mon depends almost as much upon good hearing as upon 
good preaching. Yet there is something suspicious in the 
word ‘‘wondered.’’ It suggests mere admiration for rhet- 
orice and elocution, interest in the manner rather than the 
matter of the sermon. 

The next suspicious point in the reception of this sermon 
is criticism of the preacher. They said, ‘‘Is not this Jo- 
seph’s son?’’ Appreciation quickly turned to depreci- 
ation. They began to judge the preacher by his parent- 
age, they compared his profession of Messiahship with his 
pedigree and said the two did not match. Because they 
knew him so well as one of themselves, they thought he 
could not amount to anything. 

The next point in the reception of the sermon was the 
demand for a miracle, that he would work wonders for 
their gratification as he had done elsewhere. They wanted 
to reduce him to the level of a sleight-of-hand performer. 
Jesus proceeded to prove to them from their own Scrip- 
tures that if they did not receive the truth, God would 
send it elsewhere. 

This was too much for their bigotry and pride, and the 
worshiping congregation suddenly became an infuriated 
mob and hurried the preacher off to a cliff that they might 
hurl him down to death. If we do not like the preaching, 
let us fly mad at the preacher! If the divine message 
strikes our pride, let us strike back at the human mes- 
senger. If we cannot throw him down a cliff, perhaps 
we can throw him out of his pulpit; and if we cannot 
break his head, we may at least break his heart. 

Still the matter is not so easily ended. We may kill 
the messenger, but we cannot kill the message. Truth is 
immortal, and after we think we have slain it, it still lives 
to confront us. Silencing man does not silence God. And 
even the persecuted preacher shall not be forgotten of 


156 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


heaveu, for Jesus, protected by his own divine majesty 
from the murderous mob, ‘‘passing through the midst of 
them, went his way.’’ 


2. PREACHING AND FisHinGc At LAKE GALILEE 
Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11 


From Nazareth Jesus went to Capernaum which he 
now made his headquarters during his Galilean ministry. 
Although the people of his own town rejected him and tried 
to hurl him down a cliff, yet the people of the next town 
he entered were eager to receive him. A man may fail in 
one place and: succeed in another. 

Walking by the lakeside Jesus saw the two brothers, 
Peter and Andrew, and a little farther along the shore he 
found the other two brothers, James and John. He had 
received these four men down in Judea as his converts 
and followers, but now he gave them a formal eall into his 
ministry, saying unto them, ‘‘Come ye after me, and I 
will make you to become fishers of men.’’ These brothers 
thus transformed their business into Christ’s business. 
The same powers and attainments of mind and body, 
knowledge of business, skill in the use of means, concen- 
tration and earnestness of purpose, that were used in the 
old service were now to be thrown into the new service. 
Jesus did not condemn their business, but he endorsed it 
and lifted it to a higher sphere; and he thus transmutes 
every calling. 

And these first four disciples ‘‘straightway left their 
nets and followed him.’’ They did not claim that busi- 
ness must be attended to first and religion afterward; they 
did not plead for delay and tell Jesus that, after the fish- 
ing season was over, he would hear from them; but 
straightway they followed. Faith instantly leaped into 
fact, conscience became conduct and love became life. It 
was the short sharp action of this ‘‘straightway’’ that 
saved these fishermen and at last made them such strong 
men. 

And they ‘‘left their nets’’ behind when they followed 
Jesus. They were not so deeply enmeshed in those nets 
that they could not free themselves from them. They did 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 157 


not try to bring their boats into Christ’s business. In 
entering the new life they cut loose from the old life. Too 
many Christians are still tangled up in their old fishing 
nets. Let us leave boats and nets behind. We eannot 
serve God and Mammon and in a profound sense must 
leave all to follow Christ. 

A great crowd was soon gathered around Jesus and 
pressed upon him so that he extemporized a pulpit from a 
fishing boat lying near by, and from its deck faced a vast 
audience filling the amphitheater of the shore. The great 
Teacher knew how to adapt himself to every emergency. 
Doubtless his unconventionality shocked some of the Phar- 
isees and high ritualists who thought his conducting a re- 
ligious service in the open air from an ill-smelling fishing 
boat was coarse sacrilege. But Jesus was practicing the 
great truth he announced to the woman of Samaria that 
worship is not a matter of place and form but of the 
spirit and may be offered anywhere. The world is God’s 
great temple and he may be worshiped on any shore or 
street. A camp meeting in a field or forest may burn 
with holy fire that may be lacking in a stately cathedral. 

The sermon is not recorded, but at its close Jesus bade 
the disciples launch the boat out into the deep and let 
down the nets for a catch of fish. The Master thus com- 
bined fishing with preaching, business with religion. He 
was a practical man and knew how to build a house, han- 
dle a boat and catch fish. Yet he was as truly teaching 
spiritual truth when fishing as when preaching, for with 
him worship and work were fused into one life and made 
one music. 

Peter interposed his doubt and objection, ‘‘Master, we 
have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.’’ This 
was as much as to say, ‘‘We old experienced fishermen 
have just tried that place and know there is nothing 
there.’’? Peter thought he knew what he was talking about. 
He knew that lake, had been brought up on its blue wa- 
ters, had fished it from shore to shore, knew all its deeps 
and shallows, and could tell just where and when to cast 
the nets. Jesus was a young man from back in the coun- 
try who had had no experience on the lake. Is it any won- 
der that Peter put his judgment up against that of Jesus? 


158 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Certain it is that at times we are in this same blind and 
foolish state of mind. 

We are close to Peter’s thought when we think our place 
of work contains nothing of use and interest. We see 
others pulling up their big-bellied nets swollen with fish, 
but we think the waters under our boat are empty. We 
are sure we also would do splendidly if we were only 
somewhere else. So strong is this feeling in us at times 
that we are almost ready to put our opinions and expe- 
rience up against the command of Christ and the provi- 
dence of God! 

Such was Peter’s doubt; what, now, was his action? 
‘“Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.’’ This 
is a saving and beautiful ‘‘nevertheless.’’ Peter was wrong 
in his thought, but he was grandly right in his action. 
His ereed was faulty, but his deed was beautiful. 

And what was the result when the nets were drawn up? 
Never_had there been such a catch on that lake. It broke 
all records. Instantly all was intense excitement and ac- 
tivity in the boat. Another boat was called and both boats 
were loaded to the water’s edge. If we will only fish our 
pool patiently, prayerfully, persistently, our nets may at 
length come up swollen with blessing so that there will not 
be room to receive it. 

Jesus now turned the miracle into a parable. ‘‘Fear 
not,’’ he said unto Peter; ‘‘from henceforth thou shalt 
catch men.’’ The world is our sea, and the gospel is our 
net and line with which we are to catch men. Many of the 
arts of the fisherman apply to this work and we should 
study and practice them that we may use them skilfully 
and successfully. 

Thus ended the first day’s work on the shore of the lake 
that has been made forever memorable and blessed by the 
footprints of Jesus. 


Clear silver water in a cup of gold, 

It shines—his lake—the sea of Chinnereth, 

The waves he loved, the waves that kissed his feet, 
So many blessed days. 


3. A Busy Day IN CAPERNAUM 
Matthew 8:14-17;,Mark 1:21-384; Luke 4: 31-41 
The choosing of the four disciples and the fishing on the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 159 


lake was followed by a busy Sabbath day in Capernaum in 
which we see Jesus at work. 

Straightway he entered into the synagogue; in the morn- 
ing he went to church. Jesus honored the synagogue as 
his Father’s house and attended its service for worship. 
Though himself Lord of the sanctuary, yet he was also 
a worshiper in the sanctuary of the Lord. The church is 
the school of our higher life. Here we become conscious 
of our deepest needs; here sin is seen in its guilt and 
vileness and bondage, and holiness in its purity and 
beauty and blessedness; and here is revealed and offered 
to us the great gospel of mercy and love by which we are 
saved. 

All the questions of life are illuminated in the house of 
God. We do not see any subject truly in all its connec- 
tions and consequences until we see it in a religious light, 
from God’s point of view. The church stands for our 
spiritual life, pointing its spire towards the sky, a finger 
feeling after the Infinite. But may we not be religious 
without the church? Jesus did not think so: ‘‘Straight- 
way on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue.”’ 
The church has its faults and failures, but it is still the 
divine means of our spiritual life and we should use it 
faithfully and seek to improve it. 

And being in the synagogue Jesus taught. The syna- 
fsogue service was social worship, like our prayer meeting, 
in which the people were free to take part. Jesus was not 
a mere passive listener, much less a critical faultfinder, 
but he expounded the Scripture and proclaimed the gospel 
of good news. 

The people were astonished at his teaching, as well as 
they might be, for both matter and manner were a great 
and welcome change to them. They had been bored to death 
by the scribes. These fosilized ecclesiastics were droning 
away over hairsplitting questions of orthodoxy that were 
not of the least human interest or use and were repeating 
with interminable prolixity the traditional sayings of the 
rabbis. Across this dry parched wilderness of rabbinical 
lore came the simple charming teachings of Jesus like a 
refreshing breeze and shower of rain. The people knew 
what he was talking about and were surprised that it took 
hold of them with fascinating interest and power. Noth- 


160 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ing else is so interesting as religion when it is properly 
presented, and it is by far the most popular subject in the 
world today. 

The people were astonished at the teaching of Jesus, for 
he taught them as one that had authority and not as the 
seribes. The authority of Jesus consisted, not in any dog- 
matic claims and dictatorial air, but in his spirit of trans- 
parent self-evident truth, sincerity and earnestness. He 
spoke that he did know and testified that he had seen, 
and candid minds could not help but believe his witness. 
When one’s religious faith is the very core of his heart, 
so that it is, in the words of Carlyle, ‘‘the thing a man 
does practically lay to heart and know for certain, con- 
cerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe and 
his duty and destiny therein,’’ he can teach in the church 
and out of it with authority and power. 

The service was interrupted by a loud ery of pain and 
terror from a man in the congregation possessed of an un- 
clean spirit. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, saying, ‘‘Hold 
thy peace’’ (literally, ‘‘Be muzzled,’’ a word for a beast), 
‘‘and come out of him.’’ Then the spirit, screaming and 
tearing the unhappy man with convulsions, came out and 
left the man calm and free. A murmur of excitement 
swept over the congregation as many exclaimed, ‘‘ What 
is this? A new teaching! with authority he commandeth 
even unclean spirits, and they obey him.’’ The Prince of 
Light has power over spirits of darkness and at his bidding 
every knee shall bow. 

‘*A new teaching!’’ they exclaimed. Jesus Christ, then, 
was himself a teacher of new theology. He did not keep 
to the old paths of the scribes and Pharisees, but boldly 
struck out into new paths. He revised and rewrote the re- 
ligious creeds of his day and started this process of ever 
bringing religion up to date down through the centuries. 
The fundamental principles of religion do not change, but 
our understanding and application of them do advance. 
The new astronomy interprets the same heavens as the old, 
but in a truer and more splendid way. It is the same old 
tree, but the blossoms are new every spring. It is the 
same gospel we preach from age to age, but its interpre- 
tation and application are ever new. Let us not be afraid 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 161 


of new theology if it is the old truth interpreted and ap- 
plied with new power. 

The gospel must be not only preached but also applied. 
We must get rid of the notion that merely sitting in a 
synagogue is religion. Worship must make war on wick- 
edness. It is the business of the church and of Christians 
to cast out uncleanness and not to let any evil spirit alone. 

What did Jesus do next on this Sabbath day? ‘‘ And 
straightway, when they were come out of the synagogue, 
they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with 
James and John.’’ And what did Jesus do there? Just 
the same kind of work he did in the synagogue: he healed 
Simon’s wife’s mother of a fever; he blessed that home. 

We do not see much of the home life of Jesus; in truth, 
he had no home nor where to lay his head. But when we 
do find him in a home we always see it made better by 
his presence; a sin is forgiven, a dying child is healed, or 
comfort and cheer are given. If we get any good in the 
ehurch, it ought to show itself speedily in the home. Some 
sick one should be ministered to with a kinder hand, more 
patience and gentleness should mark our behavior, beau- 
tiful courtesies should be more abundant, new Christian 
graces should bloom out in our lives. The home should 
be sweeter and brighter on Monday morning because we 
have worshiped in the church on the Sabbath day. 

The day closed with a wonderful scene. The city gath- 
ered at the door as the evening shadows fell around the 
house, the sick were brought until they filled the street, 
and Jesus healed them. His mercy, that in the morning 
manifested itself in the synagogue and in the afternoon 
flowed into the home, in the evening overflowed into the 
street and filled the city. The stream of beneficence once 
started did not stay its flood until the whole city had been 
bathed in its healing tide. The love of God is expansive 
and has in it a wideness like the wideness of the sea. There 
is no danger of its ever running short, and it will reach 
the greatest sinner and the last lost child. Having wor- 
shiped God in the church, we should go everywhere, touch- 
ing men with healing hands. 

Such was this eventful Sabbath in the life of Jesus, and 
it is a pattern for our Sabbath days. 


162 THE MAKING AND MEANING 
4, A Missionary TOUR THROUGH GALILEE 


Matt. 4:23; Mark 1: 35-45; Luke 4: 42-44 


Jesus could not stand this incessant work and strenu- 
ous life without relief and rest, but he took his rest in a 
peculiar way. ‘‘And in the morning, rising up a great 
while before day, he ‘went out into a solitary place, and 
there prayed.’’ He sought change of scene by seeking 
solitude amidst the picturesque scenery of the lakeside 
that he might engage in meditation and prayer. He 
bathed his soul in nature and in God. Without this re- 
newal of his own inner life by immersing his soul in 
silence and communion, his spiritual energies would have 
been exhausted and run dry. He must fill his own soul 
that he might fill others. 

Meditation is necessary to mastery of life. We must 
live our lives inwardly in thought before we can live them 
outwardly in action. The architect thinks his building 
through from foundation to finish, he puts it all up in 
his brain before he puts it into stone and steel, and if we 
would be architects and artists in living we must take 
time to get ready, grow deep roots of wisdom and strength 
in meditation and prayer, and then we may throw our 
branches out and bear ripened fruit in the world. 

In our hurried life we are in danger of losing this fine 
art and deep means of enrichment and of living a super- 
ficial feverish life in which we are always craving for a 
erowd and itching for a new thrill. Deep roots hidden 
in solitude and silence will cure us of this love of sensa- 
tionalism with its high blood pressure and overweening 
worldliness and enable us to live a sane and strong and 
rich life. By soaking our souls in meditation and prayer 
we gather strength and wisdom to do the work and bear 
the burdens and fight the battles of life. 

Presently the disciples found Jesus in his retreat and 
summoned him to service with the announcement, ‘‘ All 
men seek for thee.’’ Jesus was now supplying something 
for which the human heart hungered, and this announce- 
ment was prophetic of the great yearning of humanity 
by which it consciously or unconsciously seeks him. 

However it would not do for Jesus to confine his min- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 163 


istry to one town, and so he proposed, “‘Let us go into the 
next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore 
eame I forth.’’ This is the principle of home missions 
and foreign missions. Why did Jesus not just settle down 
and stay in Capernaum? That lake port and fishing town 
was not all converted to his gospel and cleansed and 
healed. He had scarcely touched the fringe of its disease 
and wickedness and there was there for him a lifetime of 
work. Why move on to ‘‘the next towns’’? 

This is precisely the argument of those who are opposed 
to home missions and especially to foreign missions. We 
have Christian work enough to do in our own town; let us 
save it before giving our time and money to save other 
towns; and besides, ought they not to look after them- 
selves? Especially does this argument grow insistent and 
clamant when it comes to foreign missions and pour ridi- 
eule on the visionary scheme of sending missionaries to 
foreign lands when we have so much heathenism at home. 

But we cannot completely evangelize one town before 
we go into the next towns because all towns are woven into 
one web in their interests and life, and the spiritual con- 
dition of one necessarily affects the condition of others. 
Even business understands this point and knows that one 
town cannot permanently prosper with other towns in 
financial depression, and one country cannot flourish on 
the poverty and ruin of other countries. If the people of 
one town resolved that they would completely evangelize 
their own town before they would help evangelize other 
towns, they would thereby doom themselves to remain 
spiritually crippled and withered; their very plan would 
be selfish and defeat itself. The last state of such a town 
would be worse than the first. 

On, the other hand, let a town begin to think of the wel- 
fare of ‘‘the next towns,’’ and its own welfare will be 
promoted thereby; its unselfish spirit of helping other 
towns will invigorate itself and hasten its own evangeliza- 
tion. So also foreign missions react helpfully on home 
missions. The question is not only whether the heathen 
can be saved without us but also whether we can be saved 
without them. 

So ‘‘Jesus preached throughout all Galilee,’’ and there- 


164 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


by inatigurated the best policy of evangelizing even Ca- 
pernaum and so must we, to have the gospel at home, go 
with it to all the ends of the earth. 

We are given an instance of the work of Jesus on this 
tour. The case is that of one of the most dreadful mal- 
adies to which human flesh is heir. Leprosy is an intensely 
realistic and frightful symbol of sin, showing outwardly 
in rotting limbs what sin does inwardly in the soul. A 
poor fellow came to Jesus, exclaiming, ‘‘If thou wilt, thou 
canst make me clean,’’ and a touch from the hand of Jesus 
gave the man blessed healing and relief. Only divine 
power could work such a cure, and the same power can 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Jesus directed the cleansed leper to tell no man, but go 
and show himself to the priest, so as to get a certificate 
of his cured condition according to the law (Leviticus 
13-14) and to offer the gift Moses commanded. Jesus 
obeyed the law in all points and therein set us an example. 


5. STRANGE THINGS 
Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5: 17-26 


Jesus is back again in Capernaum and on this occasion 
was preaching in a house. The people crowded around it, 
blocking up the doors and the very street. The Pharisees 
and scribes were now beginning to have their suspicions 
aroused about the orthodoxy of Jesus and they sat around 
him cold and critical, watching their chance to entrap 
him. 

Four men drew near, carrying on a bed a helpless 
paralytic whom they were bringing to the great Healer. 
When they drew near and found the way blocked up by 
the throng, they climbed up on the roof, tore a hole 
through the light thatch-work and let their man right 
down at the feet of the great Physician. Jesus forgave the 
paralytic his sin and sent him home carrying the very bed 
that had carried him. 

The people dispersed, some criticising and others wonder- 
ing, but all amazed, saying, ‘‘ We have seen strange things 
today.’’ What had they seen? 

They had seen strange earnestness. The Pharisees and 
priests had become so conventionalized and cold in their 


— 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 165 


religion that all the heat had been frozen out of them and 
they showed little warmth of human, sympathy with their 
fellowmen in distress. The four men that came bringing 
their helpless friend on a bed and let him down through 
the roof must have seemed strangely undignified in their 
zeal to these high ecclesiastics. 

The four friends, however, were not thinking of their 
own dignity, but of the helplessness of their neighbor and 
their consciousness was absorbed in him. As long as we 
are thinking of our own comfort and interest we are not 
likely to take much pains to help others, but when we be- 
come intensely conscious of their need we shall cast our 
own dignity to the winds. 

Another strange thing seen on this occasion was a new 
method of religious work. The ordinary method of get- 
ting a man to a physician was to take him in through the 
door, but the extraordinary method followed on this occa- 
sion was to take him up on top of the house, tear a hole 
through the roof, and let him down. The people probably 
had never seen this done before, and the Pharisees and 
scribes, who were confined in their methods to a traditional 
ritual which could not be infringed upon or changed to 
meet any emergency, were shocked and seandalized at the 
irreverence of the method. 

We should ever be ready and apt to adopt new methods 
in our church work and Christian service. We are in dan- 
ger of becoming so wedded to the old ways that we think 
they cannot be changed without sacrilege. The history of 
the church is full of this spirit, and petty and ridiculous 
have been many little variations of old customs that have 
disturbed and even divided congregations and denomina- 
tions. The old ways may have been good, but when a bet- 
ter way may be had we are to drop the old and use the 
new. 

The simple principle to follow is that of highest effi- 
ciency. A new method is not to be adopted merely be- 
cause it is new. If these four men could have got their 
friend in through the door, it would have been folly for 
them to have climbed up on the roof. We are never to 
tear the roof off simply for the sake of doing a strange 
thing. Ordinarily let us come in through the door, but 


166 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


when a man is to be healed, if needs be let us come down 
through the roof even though it creates a sensation and 
people say it is a strange thing. 

A third strange thing the people saw that day was the 
discomfiture of the ecclesiastical authorities. The Phar- 
isees and seribes were the doctors of divinity in the church. 
They represented authority and orthodoxy. Any depart- 
ure from their traditions was a dangerous heresy to be 
put down. They challenged Jesus with the startling ques- 
tion, ‘‘Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can 
forgive sin, but God alone?’’ Intense excitement swept 
through the crowd. The.Pharisees had Jesus in a corner. 
He had been caught, so to speak, in the very act. The 
church now had him in its grip and was about to brand 
him as a blasphemer. His hour of judgment was come, 

Sure enough it was come, for Jesus suddenly turned the 
tables on the Pharisees and threw them into confusion. 
As proof of his power over the man’s sin he showed his 
power over his body, and at his command the paralytic 
got up and walked off. Then the people were amazed at 
the strange thing. They had been accustomed to seeing 
the Pharisees having everything their own way, with no 
one daring to utter a word of dissent. But here they were 
suddenly discomfited and discredited by this marvelous 
young Teacher. The church dignitaries had been con- 
tradicted and refuted, they had been shown up as stand- 
ing in the very way of salvation, and the disclosure 
shocked the people as a strange thing. 

The same strange thing has often happened and may 
easily happen again. We reverence the church as a source > 
and means of truth and righteousness, and it is proper 
that we should. We expect the church to be right, and it 
generally is. But in its human administration and on 
particular points and occasions it may be wrong. It has 
sometimes stood in the way of truth and righteousness. 
Misguided ecclesiastics have often done this very thing. 
We are not, then, to worship the church or stand up for 
its infallibility, but we have a right to test its wisdom. 
The Word of God is our standard and Christ is our only 
Master. It would be a strange thing if the church were 
not sometimes wrong. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 167 


6. JESUS AT THE Poot oF BETHESDA. John 5. 

The scene shifts from Galilee to Jerusalem where we 
find Jesus at ‘‘a feast,’’ which, according to the view we 
have adopted, was probably a feast of Passover, the second 
which he attended during his ministry. These feasts were 
great attractions to all Jews, and Jesus felt this attrac- 
tion, and these visits of his are the four chief milestones 
in his public life. 

The pool of Bethesda was probably fed by a mineral 
spring possessed of curative virtue. By the side of this 
pool ‘‘lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, 
halt, withered,’’ a graphic and pitiful picture of the great 
world itself, which is a vast multitude containing every 
kind and degree of human misery and sorrow. But in the 
midst of this world there is a ‘‘Bethesda’’ or House of 
Mercy, where there is healing for all the diseases of sin. 
Out of this throng Jesus picked one crippled man and 
gave his attention to him. 

This 1s an instance of that individual work in which 
Jesus mostly engaged and by which he achieved the best 
results. It is comparatively easy for us to look on the 
mass of impotent folk in the world with a considerable de- 
gree of compassion, but if we wish to do something prac- 
tical we will have to pick out individual cases and help 
them. It is better to cure one crippled soul than simply 
to shed tears over a multitude. 

Jesus approached this man with the inquiry, ‘‘ Wilt thou 
be made whole?’’ Was not this a superfluous and even 
irritating question? What was the man lying there for, 
if not to be healed? Nevertheless the question was not 
superfluous but was just the one that needed to be pressed 
sharply into the man’s consciousness and conscience. He 
had lain there so long and so helplessly that he had lost 
hope and had become reconciled to his helplessness. This 
is the fatality that falls on some people: they sink so deep 
into discouragement that they think there is no hope for 
them and refuse to do anything. The first thing that must 
happen to such people is some sharp question or expe- 
rience that will arouse them out of their despair and drive 
them to do something. 

The infirm man expressed this hopeless state of his mind 


168 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


by explaining that here was no. one to put him in the 
pool; ‘“‘but while I am coming;’’ he said, ‘‘another step- 
peth down before me.’’ How often does this very thing 
happen to us in this world? The reason why it is so hard 
for us to get some good things is that so many others are 
after the same things and crowd in ahead of us. 

Jesus, however, overlooked all these difficulties and com- 
manded the helpless man, ‘‘Rise, take up thy bed and 
walk.’’ It was the very thing he could not do, and yet he 
was told to do it. God is often calling upon us to do what 


we think we cannot do, but his command is our warrant © 


and urgent motive to try.. 

This command dispensed with the pool and came right 
to the point of immediate healing. Christ may dispense 
with the priest and church and all the human machinery 
of salvation and come right into the soul of the sinner him- 
self. Yet the command gave the man himself something 
to do. “‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’’ Every word 
of the command is vibrant with a stirring eall to action. 
Salvation is always an intensely active process on both the 
divine and the human side: neither God nor man ean sit 
still while it is going on; both must rise up and be doing. 

‘‘And immediately the man was made whole, and took 
up his bed and walked.’’ So quick and sure is deliverance 
from the bondage of sin when there is no lost motion be- 
tween the divine command and human obedience. 

‘“And on the same day was the Sabbath.’’ What does 
this have to do with the matter? The Jews thought it had 
everything to do with it. The day made a great differ- 
ence with the deed in their theology. And they had got 
things so turned around and upside down that they seemed 
to think that the better the day the worse the deed. ‘‘The 
Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sab- 
bath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.’’ They 
had so interpreted the law of the Sabbath (Exodus 23: 12) 
and spun restrictions of their own devising around it that 
its blessing had become a curse. The extent to which they 
had carried these artificial distinctions and prohibitions 
was incredibly senseless and ridiculous. 

This mind has not yet altogether disappeared from 
among religious men. Some appear to think that it is more 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 169 


important that creeds and canons should be meticulously 
kept than that souls should be saved. This healed man 
was guilty of the dreadful sin of carrying his bed on the 
Sabbath, and the Pharisees were hot after him. But if 
we have the word of Jesus for carrying our bed we need 
not care what canon we violate or what ecclesiastics say 
or think. 

The healed man ‘‘wist not who it was’’ that had healed 
him. Many receive healing touches from the hand of 
Jesus who know him but dimly or not at all; for his heal- 
ing virtue is diffused widely through Christian and even 
through heathen lands, and millions are better for his 
presence that know or acknowledge him not. 

Jesus, however, found the man and followed up his 
healing: ‘‘Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, 
lest a worse thing come unto thee.’’ This implies that he 
had sinned and that this was the root of his infirmity. 
‘‘The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesys, 
which had made him whole.’’ As soon as he knew Jesus 
he confessed him, and this is ever the first duty of the for- 
given and saved soul. 

This work of healing precipitated the conflict between 
the Jews in Jerusalem and Jesus which henceforth grew 
in hostility until it reached its deadly end. Jesus pro- 
ceeded to deliver a great discourse in which he set forth 
fundamental truth concerning his work and his relations 
to his Father and convicted the Jews of fatal unbelief. 


7. Tue CHOOSING AND THE MISSION OF THE T'WELVE 
DISCIPLES 


Matthew 10: 2-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12—19 


On his return to Galilee from the feast at Jerusalem 
Jesus carried on his work, coming into conflict with the 
Pharisees over plucking grain in a wheatfield on the Sab- 
bath (Matthew 12:1-8), healing the man with the with- 
ered hand in a synagogue (Matthew 12:9-14), and mak- 
ing a second preaching tour through Galilee (Matthew 
12: 15-21). 

His work was now growing and spreading and the time 
had come to call men to enter into his companionship as 


170 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


disciples that they might be trained to carry on his work 
after he was gone. Spiritual ideas cannot go naked 
through the world but must be organized in an institution 
with leaders to serve as hands and feet, hearts and brains 
to perpetuate these ideas and ideals and give them con- 
erete form and definite application. This principle is seen 
in all social organizations. 

Jesus chose twelve men to enter his theological semi- 
nary to be under his personal instruction and inspiration 
and had this not been done his teachings might have floated 
off on the air and died away. The choice of these men 
was the beginning of the organized church with its officers 
and ordinances. 

A list of the disciples is given and we scrutinize the 
names with interest. Some of these men had been called 
twice before (John 1 : 35-51; Matt. 4 : 1-22), but this is 
their final call. By arranging the names in groups of four 
each, it is easy to carry them in memory. Peter always 
comes first, and Judas last. There are two and possibly 
three pairs of brothers among them. 

This is probably the most important list of names in 
the history of the world. These men were given a work 
to do compared with which winning battles and founding 
empires are of small consequence. They were to let loose 
a force that was to pervade all empires and shape all 
future ages. 

Yet they were not great men, and there was not a man 
of genius among them. They were plain men unlearned 
in philosophy. Not one of them belonged to the priestly 
or professional class. None was of noble birth, but all 
were obscure and comparatively poor. At least four of 
them were fishermen and some of these were expert in pro- 
fanity. One of them was a despised tax collector, and one 
was a zealot, a kind of anarchist of the day. One always 
has attached to his name the dark stigma, ‘‘which also 
betrayed him.’’ 

Jerusalem, the chosen city of God and proud university 
city and capital of the country, the metropolis where were 
the aristocracy and scholars and hierarchy and temple, was 
not permitted to put one name in this immortal list. Verily 
not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty, were 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 171 


ealled, but God chose the foolish to confound the wise, and 
the weak to confound the mighty. 

Yet these men, so poorly gifted and unlearned and weak 
in themselves, could do mighty things and shake and re- 
shape the world through Christ who strengthened them. 
The very simplicity of these men, unspoiled by human phi- 
losophy, made them unobstructed channels through which 
the grace of Christ could flow in the fullest measure. 

The spirit of Jesus touched and transformed their souls 
with eternal issues and made them great. Often has God, 
in choosing men for great visions and victories, passed by 
the noble and rich and learned and found humble souls 
born in obscurity and breathed into them his Spirit and 
told them first the message he sent them to tell the world. 
The charcoal needs only a rearrangement of its atoms to 
become a diamond. The rough marble block needs only 
the seulptor’s chisel to become an angel. The humblest 
men have in them divine possibilities. Any human soul 
needs only the transforming touch of Christ’s spirit to be- 
come forever pure and beautiful. 

These disciples were sent forth. They were with Jesus, 
not that they might stay with him, but that they might 
receive his gospel and then go from him, carrying the 
good news to others. 

The next point in their equipment was their message. 
Jesus appointed them that ‘‘he might send them forth to 
preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast 
forth devils.’? They were to preach the good news of the 
kingdom of God and their message was to be illustrated 
with works of healing. The gospel in their hands was not 
to be a mere theory but a practical power. Their mission 
was to be a march of mercy whose monuments would be 
healed men and saved souls. Part of this work has now 
been committed to physicians who are specially skilled in 
it, and the hospital is simply an annex of the church. 
This work of preaching and healing is now going on in our 
modern world on a wider seale than ever before, and the 
gospel is proving itself the power of God unto salvation. 

The next point in their commission was the compensa- 
tion. What salary were these disciples to receive? ‘‘ Freely 
ye have received,’’ said Jesus, ‘‘freely give.’’ Receive no 


172 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


money for God’s grace, turn not the work of saving the lost 
into an unholy traffic for gain. This admonition was spe- 
cially needed for these disciples that were made of ordi- 
nary human nature and had among their number a Judas 
Iscariot. But Jesus Christ did not come into the world 
to make money either for himself or for his disciples, and 
at the beginning he laid the axe at the root of this mer- 
eenary spirit. Few things are so ruinous to the ministry 
as an instinct for money and the love of personal com- 
fort, and any suspicion of self-interest puts a blight on 
Christian service. 

Yet because the disciples were to make no charge for the 
grace of the gospel it did not follow that they were to 
receive nothing for their support.. They were to throw 
themselves on the hospitality of the people, and Jesus also 


laid it down as a fundamental principle that the laborer 


is worthy of his hire. 

Ministers dare not charge for the grace of God, but 
they ought and must receive proper support while they 
are administering it. Water is free as it falls out of the 
clouds and gushes up in springs and flows in streams, but 
it costs something to have it brought in pipes into our 
homes. The gospel itself is free, but it costs money to 
have it preached in our churches and sent out along mis- 
sionary lines into the world. 


8. THe SERMON ON THE Mount—THE BEATITUDES 
Matthew 5:1-12; Luke 6: 20-23. 


The disciples having been chosen, the next step was to 
deliver the constitution of the new kingdom and announce 
its program. After a night spent in prayer, Jesus with 
his disciples met a great multitude on one of the hills back 
of Capernaum, and from that lofty pulpit he delivered this 
sermon that has gone resounding through the ages, and 
after nearly nineteen hundred years has lost none of its 
sweetness and saving power. It is truly a mountain ser- 
mon, overtopping all human teachings and breathing the 
air of heaven. It sets forth the spirit and the outcome of 
the kingdom of God in holiness of heart and life, though 
at this early stage it does not fully reveal the means by 


et ia 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 173 


which this is attained. The world has not yet caught up 
with its simplest requirements. Saturate society with its 
spirit and the world would be washed pure and the king- 
dom of God would be here. One day filled with it would 
be a bit of heaven. 

The first word in this sermon is ‘‘blessed,’’ and this is 
a word the world is eager to hear; but the second word is 
‘‘poor,’’ and this seems in flat contradiction with the first 
and is a word the world does not want to have mentioned. 
The theory of the world was and is that the blessed are 
the rich and satiated. But Jesus reversed this and de- 
elared that blessedness has its root in a sense of lack. 
Others had located it outside in worldly possessions and 
circumstances: he located it inside in the heart. The poor 
in spirit are those that realize their poverty of soul with- 
out righteousness and God; they do not measure their 
blessedness by outward wealth but by inward worth; they 
have that humble state of mind, conscious of its sin and 
need, that makes them receptive of spiritual blessings and 
brings them into fellowship with God. 

The blessing pronounced upon such souls is that theirs 
is the kingdom of heaven. It is only into such souls that 
this kingdom can come; for by its very nature it is shut 
out of hearts full of self-satisfied pride. The kingdom of 
heaven is a present possession, bringing order into the 
soul, subjecting all its faculties to discipline and obedience, 
and filling it with heavenly riches. Such a kingdom within 
the soul is a blessing that includes all good things and 
abides amidst all the disorder and distress of this dis- 
jointed world. 

The next beatitude is even more paradoxical to the 
worldly mind. ‘‘Blessed are they that mourn.’’ This 
seems to shock the universal human heart, for in every 
breast it shrinks from sorrow; it finds its blessing in the 
wine of gladness and counts the day of mourning a blighted 
day. Yet there is a time to weep as well as a time to 
laugh, and mourning may be a, bitter root that will bloom 
and grow into the fairest blossoms and the sweetest fruits. 
As long as there is unforgiven sin festering in the heart 
there is cause for mourning that may issue in purity and 
peace. 


174 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


The mourning that springs from loss and sorrow, also 
may have in it a root of blessing. As pearls are the prod- 
uct of the sufferings of the shellfish, so the finest jewels 
of human character are crystallized out of the sorrows of 
the soul. ‘‘Had God not turned us in his hand and thrust 
our high hills low, we had not been this splendor and our 
wrong an everlasting music for the song of heaven.’’ 

‘‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com- 
forted.’’ Jesus came to give this comfort. He picked his 
steps among the sinful and sorrowing, and to all such his 
words were a gracious balm and his touch was healing and 
life. ‘ 

The third beatitude pronounces a blessing upon the 
meek. This also fell as a strange saying upon ancient ears, 
for in that age meekness was contemned as weakness, and 
might was worshiped as right. The Roman especially had 
small respect for a meek spirit and gloried in gleaming 
steel and martial might that could crush opposition and 
he trusted to his good short sword to cut his way to power 
and make him master of the world. But/Jesus bravely 
stood up in that world bristling with spears and calmly 
said, ‘‘Blessed are the meek.’’ This Teacher was not sub- 
ject to the limitations of his age and did not simply repeat 
the opinions of his day, but he was a Teacher for all time 
and uttered eternal truths. 

Meekness is humility, gentleness and patience of dispo- 
sition. It is not puffed up with conceit and ambition and 
pride; and so it is not easily irritated and inflamed, of- 
fended and angered, and thus thrown into a fret of disap- 
pointment and a frenzy of passion. It keeps self-pos- 
sessed and cool and concentrates all its powers into pure 
purposes. Such a state of soul is in itself an inner foun- 
tain ever springing up in rich blessings. 

Not only was this beatitude strange, but the reason 
Jesus gave for it was stranger still: ‘‘for they shall inherit 
the earth.’? How can this be? would exclaim the Jewish 
patriot, looking for an armed and conquering Messiah; 
and with what scepticism and scorn would the Roman in 
his polished brass and glittering steel hear this prophecy? 
Yet the moral evolution of the world is more and more 
proving that meekness is might. War is disappearing be- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 175 


fore the peaceful march of industry, and the barbarity of 
the battlefield will yet be vanquished by brotherhood. It 
is not the most warlike nations today but the most peace- 
loving that are inheriting the earth. Meekness is might 
when it has just cause to fight, for then its strength is as 
the strength of ten because its heart is pure. 

The lowly Nazarene, who with legions of angels at his 
command never harmed the hair of a human being and did 
not even lift his hand in self-defence, was grandly right, 
and in the heart of that warlike age here laid down the 
foundation of ultimate statesmanship and national great- 
ness as well as of individual blessing. 

Other beatitudes step into this line and it grows most 

paradoxical of all at its very end when persecution takes 
its place in the procession and asks us to believe that 
it brings a blessing. 
_ These are the beatitudes of Jesus. They are a strange 
contradiction to the maxims of this world, but they are 
heavenly wisdom. They have rough shells without, but 
they are full of sweet milk within. They are shunned by 
the worldly mind that judges and is deceived by outward 
appearances, but the spiritual mind that penetrates to their 
core finds they are the eternal laws of blessedness. 


9. Tue SERMON ON THE Mount—THE LorpD’s PRAYER 
Matthew 6: 5-15 


Jesus himself prayed, stood so close to God that he 
eould speak with him face to face, and therefore he could 
teach others to pray. He was at his best, if we may so 
speak, at this moment, and never from his lips issued 
grander, sweeter music than in this immortal prayer. 

Prayer, the highest and finest state of the soul, is at- 
tended with some of the deadliest dangers, as around snow- 
capped, sky-bathed mountaintops sweep the fiercest storms. 
One of these dangers is that of turning prayer into an ac- 
tor’s performance. The Jews observed stated hours of 
prayer—morning, noon and evening—and these hypocrites 
took care at such times to be caught at some public place, 
such as a street corner, where they could strike an atti- 
tude of prayer and pose and perform before the crowd. 


176 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


They would thus put on prayer as an actor’s mask, and 
then with furtive glances slyly observe how their piety 
was impressing the public. 

That kind of prayer did not cease to be performed when 
the last Pharisee with his broad phylacteries and public 
attitudinizing passed out of the world. It repeats itself 
in every prayer that is addressed to men rather than to 
God. ‘‘An eloquent prayer,’’ of which we sometimes 
read, may not be a prayer at all, but only an eloquent 
performance. 

Vain repetitions are another danger in prayer against 
which Jesus warned his-hearers, and we need to take care 
that our prayers do not degenerate or crystallize into set 
forms which are only mechanical repetitions. There is no 
objection to set phrases and prescribed forms—they have 
their place and use—provided such forms are kept alive 
and meaningful with the devotional spirit. 

The Lord of prayer now taught the people the prayer 
of the Lord. It is a model prayer of marvelous simplicity 
and comprehensiveness, helpfulness and beauty. The sen- 
tences are short and the words are the plain speech of the 
common people. There is not one theological word in it. 
The whole prayer contains only six petitions and can be 
slowly uttered in less than half a minute. How startling 
the contrast with many a prayer in the pulpit that may 
stretch its repetitious and wearisome length out to half an 
hour and even more. Yet this prayer sweeps heaven and 
earth in its range and grasp and leaves out no good thing. 
Tt contains the roots and germs of all worship and bless- 
ing. 

Its first word strikes the keynote of Christian faith and 
theology. More than any other word the name Father tells 
us what God is, showering upon us the most charming 
memories and suggestions. It asserts his sovereignty and 
power and wisdom, and also his care and mercy and love. 
‘‘Hallowed be thy name,’’ is the first petition. We might 
think we could have made a better start. Should not some 
pressing human need have been put in the conspicuous 
forefront of this prayer? But it begins with divine inter- 
ests and looks straight away from human needs. 

The prayer, however, begins at the right point. Right 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 177, 


relation with God is the central condition and foundation 
of all blessings. Reverence is the root of all virtues. Un- 
less God be respected, the human soul has nothing to look 
up to, no ideal above it, no authority over it. 

So the prayer begins and moves along these heavenly 
heights. ‘‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, 
as it is in heaven.’’ Will the prayer never come down to 
our human needs and hear our human cries? It is the 
mountaintops, however, that keep the valleys green, and 
the sun shining above us that makes the earth blossom, 
and all our blessings come from above. The will of God 
is the supreme blessing for us. We sometimes think of his 
will as if it were a hard fate and heavy burden for us to 
bear, whereas it is the kindest and richest and most beau- 
tiful thing that can happen in the world and for the 
world. Nothing else could be half so welcome to us as the 
will of God if we only knew the depths and heights of 
blessing it contains and will bring. 

The turning point of the prayer is at last reached. ‘‘ Give 
us this day our daily bread.’’ The prayer suddenly drops 
from the highest spiritual aspiration to the lowest physi- 
cal need; in the midst of the holiest longings of the soul 
the human stomach has something to say. All the material 
conditions of life, bread, health, prosperity, are rightly 
the subject of prayer. Religion covers all life from top 
to bottom. Yet our requests for our material life should be 
kept within modest bounds for the necessities of life. Our 
daily bread, and not a year’s supply or rich poundeake or 
an ample bank account, is all we are authorized to ask for. 

‘‘And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debt- 
ors.’’ Having descended and lightly touched our bodily 
needs, the prayer quickly bounds back into the spirit and 
rises to heavenly things. Forgiveness is a mutual bless- 
ing, and we cannot get what we do not give in the spirit- 
ual world. ‘‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver 
us from evil.’’ The great fear of the prayer is not pov- 
erty or suffering, but it shrinks from every slimy touch 
and stain. The prayer, as pieced out by later hands, goes 
up to God for its fitting conclusion and climax, for all 
things human must end in the kingdom and glory of God. 

Such is the model prayer, short, simple, comprehensive, 


178 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


laying hold of the greatest blessings and rifling heaven and 
earth for our enrichment. If we learn to pray after this 
manner, in its spirit, we shall know what things we ought 
to pray for, and whatsoever we ask shall be done unto us. 

And such are samples of the Sermon on the Mount from 
whose slopes and summit have come down rivers of water 
for the blessing of the world. Of this water we should 
ever drink and live. 


Down from this Galilean mountaintop 

Rolled words that are eternal laws of life, 

More deeply grounded than its granite base; 
Flowed strains of ssweetness that have power to set 
This inharmonious worid in tune and cause 

Our jarring lives to grow to mellow music. 


10. Jzsus Heats A CENTURION’S SERVANT. 
Matthew 8 : 5-13; Luke 7:1-10 


In this incident we have the first contact of Jesus with 
the Gentile world, and it was a prophetic foregleam of 
ages to come. While Jesus did shut himself up within a 
narrow Jewish field it was only that he might raise wheat 
to be sown broadly over the world. 

Concerning this centurion nothing more is known that 
what is here recorded. He was a Roman officer in com- 
mand of a hundred soldiers stationed at Capernaum, where, 
as in, all the chief towns, the Romans kept a garrison. He 
had good points in his character. The first was his sympa- 
thetic regard for his servant. This servant was the cen- 
turion’s slave, his personal property, and the Roman slave 
had no rights his master was bound to respect. Yet there 
were bright spots in the gloom, exceptional cases in which 
master and slave were bound together in the spirit of broth-~ 
erhood, and such was the relation of this centurion and 
his slave. 

The centurion was also a man of strong character. He 
had soldiers under him that would go and come at his bid- 
ding. He was also himself set under authority, so that he 
was not only able to command others but was also able to 
obey, which is often a harder thing to do. He had the 
power of self-control, which is the highest strength. He 
had also built a synagogue for the Jews, and this shows 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179 


his liberal spirit both in religion and in financial giv- 
ing. 

So this centurion combined sympathy with strength, lib- 
erality In giving with firmness in exacting, power in com- 
manding with self-control in obeying, and thus his char- 
acter at many points is symmetrical and beautiful. 

Yet this strong man, when his beloved servant fell sick, 
came to the end of his power and broke down. His love 
for his slave, his good will toward the Jews, the syna- 
gogue he had built, the soldiers under his command, none 
of these could help him in his hour of anxiety and trial. 
Sooner or later we all come to the point where all our 
resources fail us. 

The centurion was helpless in himself, yet there was left 
one thing he could do, and he did it: he went to Jesus 
This was an act of courage. Jesus was not a popular 
prophet among many of the Jews, already he was under 
suspicion as a heretic and dangerous man. For this Ro- 
man officer to appeal to him was to expose himself to Jewish 
ridicule and scorn and possibly to charges of treason. Yet 
the soldier in him swept away all fear, and he boldly went 
to Jesus. 

When he came to Jesus and received assurance that 
Jesus would go with him and heal his servant, the centu- 
rion said, ‘‘Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthy 
that thou shouldest enter under my roof.’’ It was not 
usual for a Roman officer to speak in this spirit: rather he 
was a proud man that spoke in imperious tones of supe- 
riority. But this centurion had a sense of humility which 
was a mark of loftier greatness. He concluded with a re- 
quest that showed remarkable faith: ‘‘but say in a word, 
and my servant shall be healed.’’ 

Such faith drew from Jesus the wonderful testimony, 
‘‘T have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.’’ This 
started him off on a train of reflection that many shall 
come from the east and the west and shall sit down with 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 
but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out: a revelation 
as by a flash of lightning that many who think they are 
in the kingdom and pride themselves on their superiority 
yet have no part in it. But there is also a bright ray of 


180 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


hope in this revelation, for it shows many coming from 
unexpected quarters into the kingdom. If church people 
prove unfaithful and are shut out, many poor heathen 
souls, true to their dim light, shall come in. 

Jesus Christ had a large vision of his kingdom in the 
world. He was no parochial teacher with little plans and 
programs, but a kingdom-builder who looked through the 
ages, threw wide open its doors to the people of every land 
and saw them coming from every quarter of the horizon 
and pouring into it. Our own eyes are now seeing the ful- 
filment of this prophecy in many foreign lands. 

Jesus bade the centurion to go home. ‘‘As thou hast 
believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was 
healed in the self-same hour.’’ Faith is always the meas- 
ure of our achievements. The great faith that sees a great 
vision in any field, exploration, business, literature, is 
matched and crowned with a correspondingly great vic- 
tory. In the spiritual life it shall be done unto us ac- 
cording to our faith. Ask great things of God. ‘‘Open 
thy mouth wide, and I will fill it’’ (Ps. 81:10). 


11. How Jesus DEALT with JoHN’s Dovust. 
Matthew 11 : 2-19; Luke 7 : 18-35. 


John the Baptist had been in prison something like a 
year in a lonely fortress down by the Dead Sea. Jesus 
was up in Galilee, moving around among the villages with 
a few disciples, preaching. John fell to musing on the 
situation, and, as a result, a painful doubt began to grow 
in his mind as to whether Jesus, whom he had himself in- 
troduced and vouched for as the Messiah, was indeed this 
Prophet. 

Several causes had produced this doubt. John was in 
prison and had been there long enough to fall into a prison 
mood. Hope does not burn brightly there. No wonder 
that in that damp and dusky place the world looked dark 
to John and that the checkered shadows on the stone walls 
turned to ghostly spectres. 

This was the state of things inside the prison: and what 
was the state outside? Dark enough in itself to produce 
doubt. Up in Jerusalem the Pharisees were strangling 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 181 


the life out of religion with their bigotry and hypocrisy. 
Up in Galilee the court of Herod was living riotously and 
flaunting its scarlet sins shamelessly before the people. And 
what was Jesus doing about all this? Apparently nothing: 
only going around and preaching inoffensive little ser- 
mons in fishing towns and country villages. Where were 
the axe and the fan and fire of judgment that John himself 
had promised the Messiah would bring? They were not 
in evidence. 

On the contrary Jesus had turned out to be patient, tol- 
erant, mild, genial. He had abandoned Jerusalem and 
seemed unconcerned about Herod and his court; he had 
apparently forgotten his forerunner lying in the Black 
Tower down by the Dead Sea and was content to spend an 
easy life talking to insignificant fisher folk. <A genial 
Christ was not what John wanted: that fiery prophet 
wanted a Christ that would come with axe and fire to chop 
things down and burn them up. 

Under the convergence and pressure of all these facts 
John himself began to doubt the very Christ whom he had 
introduced with high hope and promise. That John 
doubted Jesus is the astonishing fact that stands out in 
this narrative, and it is an honest book that boldly writes 
this damaging fact down on its pages. 

No thinking mind escapes these shadows of doubt. Good 
men in all ages, even prophets and apostles, have been 
enveloped in this darkness. The higher up one climbs in 
thought and even in saintly character, the more may doubt 
beat against him, as mountaintops are caught in storms 
that never sweep down upon the plains. 

What, now, did John do with his doubt? He did not 
brood over it until it hatched out the serpents of unbelief 
and bitterness and hatred of all things good. He did not 
allow his doubt to destroy what faith he had in Jesus and 
sink into despair. The man who deals with his doubt in 
this way in doing an unfair thing and is driving his doubt 
straight into starless night. 

John sent a committee of inquiry to Jesus, asking, ‘‘ Art 
thou he that should come, or do we look for another?’’ 
He did not consult his disciples who were bringing various 
discouraging reports about Jesus; much less did he take 


182 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


counsel with the Pharisees, the enemies of Jesus, or with 
the Sadducees, the agnostics of the day; but he sent 
directly to Jesus and asked him for further light and 
gave him a further trial. This is the first course to pur- 
sue with our doubts. Doubt is a bad thing when it drives 
us away from Christ, but it is a good thing when it sends 
us to him for further facts and fuller truth and light and 
life. 

How, now, did Jesus deal with John’s doubt? He said 
unto John’s messengers, ‘‘Go and shew John those things 
which ye do hear and see.’’ This is a remarkable answer 
that blazes out upon the pages of the Gospel like a burst 
of light. It contains no harsh judgment upon John, or 
slightest trace of impatience with him for his doubt. 
Christ never dealt unkindly with any one for doubting 
him, and he will not be hard on us for our doubts if we 
will only bring them to him. 

Go and tell John the facts, said Jesus. He did not send 
word to John that his doubts were damnable and that he 
should stop his thinking and hush them up. This has 
been a favorite way of dealing with doubt in some quar- 
ters. Some ecclesiastics from the Pharisees down to our 
day have been very much afraid of thinking on the part of 
the people and have tried to discourage and even suppress 
it. But this is not the spirit of the Bible which urges us 
to prove all things and try the very spirits whether they 
be of God. Jesus did not stop John’s thinking, and men- 
tal death is not the cure for doubt to this day. 

More remarkable still, Jesus did not undertake to do 
John’s thinking for him. John’s question was, ‘‘Art thou 
he that should come, or do we look for another?” Why 
did not Jesus answer with a plain and positive yes? Why 
not relieve John of all responsibility and perplexity in 
settling this question by settling it for him? Because this 
is not Christ’s way and it is not God’s way. It is a way 
that presents plausible pleas and attractions. It seems so 
plain and easy and conclusive, and it has often been tried. 
There are ecclesiastics who want to do all our religious 
thinking for us and kindly offer to relieve us of all trouble 
in the matter. Why not have the church fix and finish 
our creed down to the last letter and then simply accept 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 183 


it on its dogmatic authority? Because our minds will not 
let us and God does not want us to do this. 

Christianity is not a superstition but a rational religion. 
God had not given us reasoning faculties and then stifled 
and stultified them by leaving them no room in which to 
work; on the contrary he is ever urging us on into a 
larger use of our reason. ‘‘Come now, and let us reason 
together, saith the Lord’’ (Isaiah 1:18). 

So on this occasion Jesus said in effect to John’s disciples, 
‘Go and tell John the facts and let him draw his own 
conclusion; I will not answer this question for him dog- 
matically, but I will give him more facts and suggest to 
him a further line of thought and let him work out an 
answer to his own question.’’ Jesus did not tell John to 
do less thinking, but he told him to do more thinking. 
Jesus is not afraid of reasoning in his disciples: he only 
wants them to reason enough and think their way through 
to right conclusions. 

What were the facts Jesus submitted to John? ‘‘The 
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.’’ 
These were not theological arguments but gracious works. 
They were self-certifying evidences. 

There are other works being wrought in our day that 
come closer to our vision and experience. The character 
and deeds of Christ match and prove his divine claims. 
That white Life that grew up out of the hard barren soil 
of that selfish world must have had a divine root that 
was never born of earth. His magnificent march of mercy 
through the Christian centuries is a mighty fact. His 
sayings are self-evident truths, which are not dogmatic 
deliverances but spiritual laws that work in our lives as 
Newton’s law of gravitation works in the skies. Thus 
Jesus boldly trusted this matter to John’s judgment, and 
so does he trust us. 

‘‘ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in 
me.’’ With these words Jesus closed his answer to John. 
They imply that we must exercise some patience with 
Christ, that we cannot fully understand him, that after 
we have done our profoundest and most sympathetic 


184 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


thinking towards him there will still be unexplored re- 
mainders and unsolved problems we cannot clear up, that 
he is bordered with mystery that must ever transcend and 
try our faith. All our religious thinking is margined 
and mingled with mystery. It would be a superficial re- 
ligion that we could fathom; it would be a poor and piti- 
ful God that we could see through. Some things in Christ 
we must ever take by faith; some of his ways may ever 
sorely perplex us. But blessed is he that is not offended 
on this account, but rather trusts and worships him the 
more. 


12. JESUS TEACHING BY PARABLES 
Matthew 13:1-53; Mark 4: 1-34; Luke 8 


On the shore of Lake Galilee, standing on its sandy 
beach and sitting on its grassy banks were an assembled 
multitude, while from the pulpit of a fishing boat Jesus 
delivered to them a series of seven parables. It was the 
first instance of his using this mode of teaching and seems 
to have surprised the disciples so that they asked him 
privately for an explanation. 

A parable is a short story with a moral point, a picture 
of the truth taught, a dramatized expression of doctrine. 
An abstract statement of a truth is difficult to eresp and 
is apt to be uninteresting. Put the same truth in the 
form of a story or illustration drawn from the Yamiliar 
things of life, and instantly it takes on form und color 
and dramatic action and begins to attract attention. 

Jesus was a master of illustration. His purables are 
pictures out of the daily experience of his hearers which 
brought his teachings home to every one’s usiness and 
bosom. He spoke to farmers of sowing and reaping, of 
wheat and tares; to fishermen of casting ners and sorting 
out fish and finding the pearl of great price, The listlesy 
housekeeper suddenly had her attention arrested by hear- 
ing mention of the leaven hid in the meal or of sweeping a 
room in search of a lost coin; and the workman, weary 
with his day’s toil, stopped to hear of the laborers em- 
ployed in the vineyard and of how they struck for higher 
wages. Jesus spoke in the language of daily life and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 185 


made religion as real and practical as farming and fish- 
ing. His sermons were picturesque and attractive and 
at times touched with humor; his hearers knew what he 
was talking about, and the common people heard him 
gladly. 

The main object of the parable of the sower, which will 
be taken as an example of these parables, is to describe 
four classes of hearers with the view of persuading us to 
take heed how we hear. 

First, are those that receive the seed of truth on the 
wayside. This is the path or road running through the 
grainfield which was traveled over so that it was kept 
beaten down bare and hard, and seeds falling on it were 
quickly picked up by greedy, watchful birds that were 
hovering about. Our hearts are thus traveled over and 
beaten down. Our sins trample over them with their 
hardening hoofs, the hurrying traffic of the world rolls 
over them its iron wheels, and what chance do seeds of 
truth falling on such hearts have to take root? The mind 
may listen, but quickly some worldly thought or desire 
comes in and snatches it away. 

The second class of hearers receive the seed upon stony 
soil. This is only a thin layer of earth on an underlying 
sheet of rock, and the seeds falling on this warm soil 
quickly take root, but when the rootlets strike the layer 
of rock the plant all the more luxuriantly shoots up into 
stalk; but having no depth of earth, under a scorching sun 
it soon droops and withers. This represents a ready re- 
ception of truth that is only superficial and temporary. 
It may be due to an emotional nature that responds to 
every appeal as a leaf flutters before every breath of air. 
There are people that like to have their feelings touched 
and cry as easily as children, to whom tears may be a 
kind of luxury. But the excitement soon passes, the old 
temptations return, and such converts do not last and are 
soon ready for the next revival. 

So runs the story. Other seeds are choked by thorns, 
and old habits constrict and strangle the seeds of the 
gospel. But good soil brings forth thirty and sixty and 
even a hundred fold. These are they of open mind and 
receptive heart who receive the truth with depth of con- 


186 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


viction and fervency of faith and have staying power in 
the Christian life and bear the fruits of the Spirit. 

The main point of the parable is the lesson that Jesus 
himself drew from it that we should take heed how we 
hear. Preaching is thought to be a difficult thing involv- 
ing great responsibility, but hearing is generally supposed 
to be easy, involving little or no responsibility and no 
effort at all. But in fact hearing is in a sense as difficult 
and responsible work as preaching and teaching. There 
is plenty of poor preaching abroad in the land, but there 
is vastly more poor hearing; and no doubt one reason 
there is so much poor preaching up in the pulpit is that 
there is so much lamentably poor hearing down in the 
pews. 

Good hearing implies preparation and a right state of 
mind, sympathetic attention to and concentration of 
thought upon the subject, and these are a difficult exer- 
cise of the mind. It makes some difference to the mer- 
chant how he hears the orders of his customers; or to the 
locomotive engineer how he reads the orders of the train 
dispatcher; or to the soldier how he hears the commands 
of his officer; or to a patient how he hears the directions 
of his physician; or to one asleep in a burning building 
how he hears the voice calling upon him to escape for his 
life. On the way we hear may depend life itself. In- 
finitely greater difference does it make how we hear the 
voice of the Lord Jesus calling upon us to repent and 
believe upon him and to do his will. On such hearing 
depend the issues of eternity. 

These parables illustrate the whole manner of the teach- 
ing of Jesus as artless, simple, sincere, issuing as a living 
stream out of his own experience, appealing to the ex- 
perience of his hearers, always bearing the accent of real- 
ity and throbbing with sympathy and earnestness. He 
taught with authority, not with the arbitrary authority 
of official station, but with that of inherent and self- 
evident truth. His words were their own witnesses and 
needed no official claim or station to confirm them. 

Universality was stamped upon his teaching. His sub- 
jects, however personal and local, were yet universal in 
their range and application. The smallest matter in his 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 187 


hands became great. He kept clear of provincial and 
local affairs and dealt chiefly with the large and perma- 
nent interests of the human soul. The teachings of any 
ancient author, even the greatest, such as Plato and Cicero, 
are obsolete on many a page, because they have long since 
been left behind by the progress of human thought. 
Seience has put them in a pitiable plight. But none of 
the teachings of Jesus is thus out of date and left behind. 
His words are ever abreast and in advance of the age; 
and still his sublime saying stands true, ‘‘Heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’’ 


13. A Storm on LAKE GALILEE 
Matthew 8: 23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8: 22-25 


At the close of the busy day of teaching, Jesus needed 
rest and he saw that the only way he could escape from 
the multitude and find retirement was to cross the lake 
to the other side. This lake, rimmed in with abrupt 
mountain walls cut deep with canyons, is subject to sud- 
den and violent storms. The winds rush down the ravines 
and lash the placid sea into a boiling foaming mass of 
maddened water. 

Such a storm fell upon the lake on this evening, and 
presently the boat containing Jesus and his disciples was 
being tossed about like a bit of wood on the angry waves. 

The sea is a favorite symbol of life in all literatures. 
Its smooth surface and bright prospect and pleasant sail- 
ing and its changing moods and its storms and mystery 
and tragedy,—how these reflect our human experience. 
We might think that life in God’s world would always be 
smooth and safe and pleasant, but he has not made it so. 
It has its broad bright expanse when heaven pours its 
splendor upon it and it seems like a sea of glass, and 
then its skies darken and break into a storm that sends 
all God’s waves and billows over us. 

Where was Jesus in this storm? ‘‘In the hinder part 
of the ship, asleep on a pillow.’’ It is a beautiful touch 
of the humanity cf Jesus. Weary with the day’s labor, 
in which he had expended his strength and imparted his 
soul to the multitude, spent in body and in mind, he lay 


188 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


down in the arms of ‘‘nature’s sweet restorer.’? He was 
fatigued with toil, he had done nothing that day that 
troubled his conscience, and he had committed himself 
to his Father’s care as he lay down in that boat, and these 
are the secrets of sound sweet sleep at the close of any 
day. 

And what were the disciples doing in the storm? No 
doubt they did their best to manage the boat. They were 
fishermen and knew that lake and were expert in seaman- 
ship, many a storm had they weathered, and they knew 
how to reef the sails and scud before the wind. 

But this storm was too much for them. The waves 
were beating into the boat and filling it with water, and 
they thought they must have instant help or it would 
soon be all over with them. At this point they awoke 
Jesus and eried unto him, ‘‘Master, carest thou not that 
we perish?’’ There is a note of impatience in their words, 
and yet they appeal to Jesus, not as another boatman or 
fellow man, but as Master and Lord. They knew that his 
power underlay and overtopped that sea and storm and 
could curb its wrath and put a hook in its mighty frothy 
jaws and bring it low; and their faith in him, though at 
times it wavered and was near to failing, now rose in its 
strength and cast itself upon him. 

We should trust in the Lord at all times, but especially 
in the hour of darkness and storm. ‘“Deep ecalleth unto 
deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and 
thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will com- 
mand his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night 
his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of 
my life.’’ 

This prayer was immediately answered. The sleeping 
Christ awoke and arose and stood upon the deck of that 
sinking ship, and with calm dignity and self-possession, 
as of one who knew that he held that sea in the hollow of 
his hand, he said, ‘‘Peace, be still!?’ The tempest-driven 
waters fell flat and the holy calm of evening lay upon the 
sea. What is this more than the mastery of mind over 
matter? The human spirit can quiet down and control 
the agitated human body even when it is in a paroxysm 
of pain, and cannot the divine Spirit that pervades the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 189 


universe master it at every point and mold it to his pur- 
poses? One of the deepest facts of the universe is that 
matter is servant of mind and may be only one mode of 
its manifestation, and this miracle is an instance of this 
fact. 

What effect did this deliverance have upon the disciples? 
‘‘And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, 
What manner of man is this, that even the wind and 
the sea obey him?’’ They had seen other exhibitions of 
the miracle-working power of Jesus, but this so far sur- 
passed all other wonders that they felt that they did 
not know him and exclaimed, ‘‘ What manner of man is 
this!’’ 

Yet the storm added nothing to Jesus, but only brought 
out what was in him. An observer, noting the men in 
that boat as it drew away from the shore that evening, 
would not have discerned any marked difference in its 
occupants. They were all plain men, wearing about the 
same garb and belonging to the same class. But the storm 
suddenly revealed a difference among them of immense 
range and power and showed one of them to be divine 
and made him master of the others and of the sea. Great 
erises bring out what is in men. Lincoln did not seem to 
differ greatly from other men until the Civil War came: 
then his power came out and he stood master of the hour 
and of the nation. 

Jesus did not seem to many of his contemporaries to be 
other than a common man and a deluded and dangerous 
one at that. Yet the centuries have brought out the real 
nature and rank and power of this Man and revealed him 
as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. 

Do we think that we fully know Jesus Christ? This is 
the folly. of our superficial knowledge and the blindness 
of our conceit. We also need some outburst of his power 
or extraordinary experience to shock us out of our self- 
satisfied shallowness and give us a new vision of Christ. 
Then we shall exclaim, ‘‘What manner of man is this!’’ 
Even the centuries obey him and swing their orbits around 
his cradle and date their calendar from his birth. Our 
greatest safety and comfort and blessing consist in trust- 
ing him in all the experiences and storms of life. 


190 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


14. Tue TRAGEDY oF THE Buack TowErR 
Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29: Luke 9:7-9 


Incidents following the storm on the lake were the heal- 
ing of the Gadarene demoniac, the raising of the daugh- 
ter of Jairus, the healing of two blind men, the second 
rejection at Nazareth, a third preaching tour through 
Galilee, the instructions to the Twelve, and then we come 
to the story of the death of John the Baptist. 

As Jesus moved about from point to point in Galilee, 
the fame of his mighty works spread far and wide, and 
various theories were being offered to account for his won- 
derful doings, some saying he was Elijah and others that 
he was a prophet. 

But Herod had a theory of his own which he could 
not keep from blurting out. ‘‘This is John the Baptist,’’ 
he said, ‘‘he is risen from the dead.’’ Sadducee and 
sceptic though he was, yet conscience overpowered his 
scepticism in the resurrection and he saw the murdered 
man alive. The sight of the holy prophet’s blood drip- 
ping on the palace floor never could be banished from 
his mind and made him believe in a possibility which his 
ereed denied. 

The occurrence of this incident in the life of Jesus leads 
the writers of the synoptic Gospels to give an account of 
the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist which 
had occurred some time before. The tragedy occurred 
in Castle Macherus or the Black Tower, situated on a 
crag overlooking a deep mountain gorge nine miles east 
of the Dead Sea. Mineral springs were near by, and in 
the palace he had built there Herod spent a portion of 
each year. The prophet had been in prison about a year 
when, amidst the revelries of a royal feast, there was en- 
acted this dark and revolting tragedy. 

The crime had its roots in causes far back, and there 
was a woman in the ease. Herod Antipas had inherited 
and developed many of the traits of his father, Herod the 
Great, that monster of iniquity. He lured away Herodias, 
the wife of Philip, Herod’s elder brother, who was an am- 
bitious, fascinating and unprincipled woman. He already 
had a wife and she had a husband, but these were slight 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 191 


obstructions in the way of such people, and the unholy 
union was formed. Fawning courtiers flattered the guilty 
pair, but when John the Baptist got a chance at them he 
did not mince his words. ‘‘It is not lawful for thee to 
have her,’’ he said. He shot a flash of lightning into 
Herod’s guilt; he put his finger on the burning point of 
his sin and made him writhe under its touch. 

From this hour the prophet’s doom was sealed. The 
fury of an enraged woman that had the heart of a tigress 
was let loose against him. She would have killed him 
outright, but was restrained by Herod. He was afraid to 
go so far, but sent and seized John and hurried him off 
to the Black Tower and thrust him into its dungeon dug 
deep in the rock. Herod would not stand such preaching 
and made way with the preacher. 

The scene is now set in the Castle Macherus and we 
look in upon revelry and dancing. Herod’s birthday was 
being celebrated with a great social function. It was the 
society event of the season, and the lords of the court, the 
officers of the army, and the wealth and fashion and beauty 
of Galilee were present. The Castle gleamed with lights 
and strains of minstrelsy floated out upon the air. 

But there was one unhappy woman there that night. In 
the midst of the revelry Herodias was rankling with re- 
venge and her brain was busy with plots and plans. At 
such a feast it was customary to introduce a professional 
dancing girl to entertain the guests, and this dance was 
immoral in character and pleased the spectators in pro- 
portion as it passed the borders of modesty. 

On this occasion Herodias introduced as the dancer 
Salome, her own daughter by a former marriage. It was 
a shame for a mother to prostitute her daughter to this 
end, but this was a link in her cunning plot and it worked 
like a charm. The dancer caught the fancy of Herod who, 
infatuated with the girl, offered her whatsoever she might 
wish, even to the half of his kingdom. The daughter 
withdrew to consult her mother. The tigress was lying 
in wait in her lair outside the dance hall and her hour was 
come. 

Beneath the marble floor of the palace, right under her 
feet, chained to a rock was John the Baptist, the hated 


192 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


preacher who had dared to cross her path. All that scene 
of revelry and splendor could not give her satisfaction 
while this object of her fury was alive. ‘‘What shall I 
ask?’’ was the daughter’s question. The answer was 
ready on the very tip of the mother’s tongue. Without 
the waste of a word she hissed, ‘‘The head of John the 
Baptist.’”’ 

The daughter was of the same cold and cruel blood as 
her mother and carried the request to the king. He was 
shocked at the dreadful idea, but he was now afloat on 
the swift-rushing current of his sin. Instantly a soldier 
was dispatched to execute the order. Suddenly the door 
of the cell creaked on-~its hinges and the officer stood in 
the gloom, peering around for the prisoner, all unexpect- 
ant of his fate. One strong sure stroke of his keen sword 
and the deed was done. The head was placed on a charger 
and brought dripping up into the palace before the horri- 
fied guests and handed to the daughter and from the 
daughter it passed to the mother. Her revenge was com- 
plete: the hated preacher’s voice was silenced. 

But was that the end of the tragedy of the Black Tower? 
No, it was only the beginning. Afterwards Herod be- 
heved the murdered man was alive and was terrified. Not 
all the multitudinous seas could wash the stain of the 
prophet’s blood out of the consciences of the guilty pairs 
Presently the scheming Herodias got Herod into trouble 
at Rome, and he was banished into France and then into 
Spain, where they both died in exile. They went down 
to their dishonored graves stung with disgrace and fear 
and have been pilloried before all the ages for their crime. 
Once more it was terribly confirmed that the wages of sin 
is death. 

Thus John the Baptist went to his cross before his 
Master. ‘‘And when his disciples heard of it, they came 
and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.’’ 


15. Five THousanp FeEp 


Matthew 14:13-23; Mark 6:30-46; Luke 9:10-17; 
John 6:1-15 


After the execution of John the Baptist, Jesus with his 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 193 


disciples crossed Lake Galilee to the northeastern shore 
for safety and rest. No sooner had he started than the 
people followed after him in boats and around the shore 
so that presently a great multitude was gathered before 
them. That was the end of his rest, and the work of 
teaching and healing began. 

Hivening drew on and a difficulty loomed up. What was 
to be done with all these people? Jesus intimated that 
they must be fed. The perplexed disciples took stock of 
their provisions and put their heads together and were 
at their wits’ end. Already the sun was dropping behind 
the western hills and the chill of evening was in the air. 
Something must be done quickly; what could it be? They 
thought of the multitudes; they thought of their few 
loaves and fishes; they thought of everything, except 
Christ. It does not seem to have occurred to them that 
he could help them out of their difficulty. Sometimes in 
our perplexities we think of everything—except God. 

At last they hit upon a way out of their trouble and 
came to Jesus with their plan. ‘‘Send the multitude away, 
that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves 
victuals.’’ Send them away! How natural the sugges- 
tion, how easy the solution, what a quick riddance of the 
burden. We must not, however, be too hard on these 
disciples, as we would probably have thought of the same 
thing and their plan seems to be only common sense. But 
nothing can make bigger blunders than common sense 
when it forgets God. 

This thought may get into our theology and church life. 
A church that makes itself exclusive and welcomes people 
of a certain class and gives the cold shoulder to others, a 
silk-robed, kid-gloved Christianity that separates itself 
from the common crowd, is saying in tones that are not 
misunderstood, Send them away. The anti-missionary 
spirit that says, We have heathen enough at home, is say- 
ing, of the heathen abroad, Send them away. When in any 
way we have made sure of our own basket of provisions 
and are not willing to share it with others, but look with 
indifference on their hunger, we are bidding them to take 
themselves off and buy bread for themselves. 

__ “Send them away,”’ said the disciples. ‘‘They need not 


194 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


depart,’’ instantly said Jesus. Any plan that would send 
people away from Jesus Christ is no part of his gospel. 
Here is the contrast between the disciples and the Mas- 
ter: the one short of means, narrow and selfish and want- 
ing to send people away; and the other full of resources, 
broad and sympathetic and having abundance and welcome 
for all. 

When asked what they had, Andrew, who seldom had 
anything to say, ventured the remark, ‘‘There is a lad 
here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: 
but what are they among so many?’’ Evidently Andrew 
did not think much of this boy with his pitifully few 
loaves and ‘‘small fishes’’ and thought they were hardly 
worth mentioning. This is what Moses thought of his 
power of speech when God commanded him to go and 
speak to Pharaoh. ‘‘O Lord,’’ he said in effect, ‘‘I can’t 
speak: send Aaron.’’ Yet Moses spoke great thundering 
words that shook Egypt, but who can quote anything that 
Aaron ever said? This is what we often think when we 
are called to do a work. With our few means and narrow 
opportunities we have no chance! Give us large means 
and big opportunities and see what we will do. 

What did Jesus say? ‘‘Bring them hither to me.’’ The 
Master was not alarmed at the smallness of the means. 
What the disciples despised he took and with them wrought 
astonishing results. It is not the means, but the power 
behind the means that does the work. Give Samson only 
the jawbone of an ass and with it he will slay a thousand 
Philistines. Give David only a smooth stone out of a 
brook and with it he will bring tumbling down huge blus- 
tering Goliath who had defied the whole army of Israel. 
Give the chemist only seum and dross and out of it he 
will extract exquisite perfumes and the most. beautiful col- 
ors. Give the poet the rudest pen and with it he will write 
musical lines and fairy visions. There are undreamed-of 
possibilities in us and in the means in our hands if we will 
only develop them. 

Jesus now had the multitudes sit down on the green 
grass in ranks of hundreds and fifties. What was this? 
Business efficiency, order and organization, division of 
labor. We must cut up our work and apportion it out so 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 195 


that each one will have a definite part, and the work can 
then be done without confusion and overlapping and 
waste. 

The bread was then passed, and ‘‘they all did eat and 
were filled.’” When the multitude saw these few loaves 
started out, perhaps those around the distant edges of the 
erowd thought and feared that the bread would never 
reach them. But nearer and nearer it came, the mysterious 
supply never running short, until the last rank was 
reached and the last child was fed. Let us never fear that 
the merey and resources of God will ever fail. 

‘‘Gather up the fragments that remain,’’ said Jesus, 
‘that nothing be lost.’? And they gathered up of these 
fragments twelve baskets. Was not this strange frugality 
on the part of him who could create such abundance? But 
unbounded resources and the largest liberality may be 
closely connected with the strictest economy. The Hand 
that could create a hundred loaves did not disdain to pick 
up a crumb. 

God with all his infinitude of resources never wastes 
anything, or lets any fragment fall useless and forgotten 
out of his hand. Wasting fragments has ruined many a 
business, and by-preducts are often a source of large 
profits. Waste no fragments of time or bread or opportu- 
nities of doing good, but gather them up and keep them 
for the hour of need and service. 


16. Jesus BREAKS WITH THE PHARISEES 
Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23 


‘‘Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the 
elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat 
bread?’’ The question thus put to Jesus by the Pharisees 
and scribes does not seem to raise any vital point or por- 
tend any serious consequences; yet it is the spark of fire 
that kindled into a white heat the whole issue between 
him and them; it is the gleam of the dagger with which 
they meant to pierce his heart. Here Jesus breaks with the 
Pharisees and this point marks the beginning of the end. 

The washing of the hands, to which the Pharisees re- 
ferred in their question, was not the ordinary cleansing of 


196 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the hands, but a ceremonial requirement of the most com- 
plicated kind. Before eating, the hands had to be washed 
by an elaborate process involving many precise ways of 
holding them and pouring water on them and letting it 
drain and drip off, which had to be most carefully and rig- 
idly observed. There were twenty-six rules for this rite in 
the morning alone, and to violate or neglect them was de- 
clared to be a sin as bad as adultery or murder and wor- 
thy of death! 

It is easy to see what would become of the spirit of relig- 
ion when caught in such a system: it would be constricted 
and strangled to death. The outer material form grad- 
ually buried and crushed the inner spiritual reality. More 
and more care and importance were attached to mechanical 
acts and less and less to spiritual states. 

Not only so, but the mechanical form came to be used 
as a deliberate means to kill off spiritual life and as a mask 
to hide all manner of wickedness. While the Pharisees 
were so punctilious and ostentatious in observing their own 
traditional inventions and were ready to persecute even 
unto death any one who dared to neglect them, they were 
robbing widows, refusing to support their parents and rev- 
eling in all manner of iniquity. They were like sepulchres, 
outwardly white but inwardly full of dead men’s bones. 
This has ever been the tendency of ceremonial religion. 

What did Jesus say in answer to this apparently inno- 
cent question as to the practice of his disciples? It seemed 
to be only a trivial point of personal habit, but he dis- 
cerned its true import and far-reaching consequences. It 
was a critical moment with him; he stood facing a temp- 
tation as perilous as that which assailed him in the wil- 
derness. His kingdom was at stake, and he faced the Phar- 
isees as boldly as he had faced the devil. ‘‘And he an- 
swered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the 
commandment of God because of your tradition?’’ He 
then charged them with having set aside and violated one 
of the Ten Commandments of Moses, even the one bidding 
them to honor father and mother, with their cunning de- 
vices, again denounced them for having ‘‘made void the 
Word of God because of your tradition,’’ and quoted Isaiah 
against them. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 197 


Then calling the multitude he cried out, as if to all the 
world, ‘‘Hear, and understand: not that which gocth into 
the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the 
mouth, this defileth a man.’’ Not that which is outside a 
man and passes into his body ean do him any spiritual 
harm, but that which is inside and comes out of his heart. 
Thus Jesus boldly broke with the Pharisees and trampled 
upon their human traditions. He would have none of their 
petty rules and regulations as a necessary condition of 
living a religious life. 

It is true that he observed and instituted simple ordi- 
nances himself, but these were only means to an end and 
not the end itself. His kingdom did not consist in meat 
and drink, ordinances and ceremonies, images and incense 
and all the gorgeous spectacle of the stately temple or ca- 
thedral, but in righteousness and peace, a pure heart and 
a right life. 

The answer he gave that day was a turning point in his 
eareer. It shattered the whole Pharisaic system and made 
him a terrible heretic. From that hour he was a doomed 
man in the eyes of these ecclesiastical authorities. So 
deeply were they wounded, so open was their resentment, 
that the alarmed disciples said to Jesus, ‘‘Knowest thou 
that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this 
saying?’’ Well did Jesus know this and know the price 
he would have to pay, but he calmly answered, ‘‘ Every 
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall 
be rooted up.’’ He was teaching, not simply for that time, 
but for all time, and he foresaw the final victory. 

Tradition has its place in religion, as in all things else. 
It stores up the accumulated experience and wisdom of 
the past and hands it down to us as our precious inherit- 
ance. The race would never get forward if every genera- 
tion had to begin at the beginning. The Bible itself is sim- 
ply so much tradition: it is the religious experience of the 
chosen people as recorded and interpreted for us by proph- 
ets and apostles. As such it is of immense value to us, 
saving us from fighting our way up out of barbarism and 
heathenism and planting our feet on the summits of Chris- 
tian truth and attainment won by illuminated and holy 
men. Jesus himself used tradition. He did not cast away 


198 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


all that had been done by Moses and Isaiah and begin 
anew, but he adopted and adapted their materials; he in- 
troduced his religion, not by revolution, but by evolution. 

Nevertheless, tradition has its limits and dangers. It is 
to be used as so much valuable material for building, but 
not as a fixed and finished structure. It furnishes us with 
seeds and roots, but these are not to be kept from sprout- 
ing: they are to be made to grow into their proper flower 
and fruit. When tradition is used as a bond to bind our 
brains and constrict our hearts, when it becomes an artifi- 
cial system of human invention and not a vital breath of 
the Spirit, then we are to break through it and trample 
upon it that we may win our way to our liberty and our 
right to grow. ‘Tradition, however ancient and sacred, 
must always be tested by living truth and experience. 

This break with the Pharisees marks the practical close 
of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee. He now withdrew into 
the region of Tyre and Sidon and returned through Decap- 
olis to Galilee, where he fed the four thousand and had 
some further relations with the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
but the year of popularity was now ending and was soon 
to enter upon the year of opposition. 


17. Tuer Interview at Carsarea PHrrgppr 
Matthew 16: 13-20; Mark 8: 27-30; Luke 9: 18-22 


Jesus with his disciples now went north to Caesarea 
Philippi with the object of having a close private interview 
with them and making a momentous revelation to them. 

When they were far from the busy scene in which they 
had been moving, Jesus put to them the question, ‘‘ Who 
do men say that I am?’’ This question is still throbbing 
in the heart of our civilization. First asked by an obscure 
Galilean in that far-off solitude, it has come thundering 
down the ages and is the mightiest question in the world 
today. 

Ideas determine life and in the long run rule the world. 
What men think is the inner force that shapes what they 
are and do. The theories that are generally held with refer- 
ence to industry, wealth, government, art, morals and re- 
ligion, mold human society into all its forms, as the hidden 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 199 


life of a tree fashions every leaf and bud. What men 
think of Christ is the master foree of the world and more 
than anything else shapes its life. 

The disciples gave the various answers men were giving. 
The answers differed, but they all agreed that Jesus was 
an extraordinary person, at least a prophet, a mysterious 
personality containing an element of the supernatural. 
Men are still giving various answers, but they all take 
high ground as to his character and work. The answer 
that Jesus was a myth, or a dupe, or an imposter is no 
longer tolerated. Even the greatest sceptics see something 
in this man that they cannot explain on ordinary principles 
and they pay tributes to him that fall little short of 
divinity. 

Renan, sceptic as to the supernatural, ends his Life of 
Jesus with these words: ‘*‘Whatever may be the surprises 
of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship 
will grow young without ceasing; his legend will call forth 
tears without end; his sufferings will melt the noblest 
hearts; all ages will proclaim that, among the sons of men, 
there is is none born greater than Jesus.’’ Charles Lamb 
once said to a company of friends: ‘‘If Shakespeare 
should enter the room we should all rise; if Jesus Christ 
should enter, every one would kneel.’’ 

Jesus now turned the general question into the sharp 
personal inquiry, ‘‘But who say ye that I am?’’ Impor- 
tant as is the general question, far more important to each 
one is this individual inquiry. No one can escape its keen 
personal point. A neutral attitude is impossible. What- 
ever we do is a decision; and nothing else goes so deep 
down and so far out into our lives as who we say Jesus is. 

‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’’ ex- 
claimed the impulsive Peter. For once Peter was grandly 
right. He hit the truth at the center. His great confes- 
sion exalts Christ as the Son of the living God, lifting him 
above humanity and crowning him with divinity. 

The great confession was instantly capped with a great 
blessing. ‘‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona.’’ Faith on 
the Son of God is the root of all spiritual blessing, and 
every duty instantly brings its own reward. The next 
blessing for Peter was that he should be a foundation stone 


200 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


in Christ’s church: ‘‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it.’? There is a play upon the words in the 
Greek which may be brought out by translating: ‘‘Thou 
art rock, and upon this Rock I will build my chureh.’’ 

Few passages of Scripture have been the subject of so 
much controversy. The two main interpretations are, first, 
that the rock on which Christ will build his church is Peter 
himself, and, second, that this rock is the faith he has just 
confessed. The two views may be combined into the view 
that it is Peter as making this confession that is the foun- 
dation rock of the church. The Rock of Ages and chief 
corner stone on which the church is built is Christ himself, 
but on this Rock is laid the foundation of apostles and 
prophets (Eph. 2:20). All believers are built into Christ’s 
spiritual house as living stones (I Pet. 2:5) and are thus a 
foundation for those that come after them and build on 
them. 

And now across the path of the disciples for the first 
time fell the fateful shadow of the cross. From that time 
began Jesus to part the veil of the future before them and 
show them things to come. He saw his path running 
straight up to Jerusalem into the murderous hatred of the 
priests and Pharisees; beyond their hatred he saw the ter- 
rible cross standing with its arms outstretched waiting to 
clasp and crush him in an agony of death in their bloody 
embrace; and beyond the cross he saw the power and 
splendor of the resurrection morning. Jesus had spared 
his disciples this painful disclosure until they were able to 
bear it, and God often hides things from us in merey and 
reveals them to us only when we are ready for them and 
can stand the strain. 

Impetuous Peter could not endure this disclosure and 
broke out in the exclamation, ‘‘Be it far from thee, Lord: 
this shall not be unto thee.’’ This was just like Peter, un- 
loosing his self-restraint and speaking unwisely with his 
tongue. The plan of redemption unfolded by Jesus and 
running back through eternity, was not to Peter’s liking 
and he proposed to stop it! How true is this to Peter’s 
short-sighted vision and impulsive nature. 

But Jesus made short work with Peter’s presumption. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT —_ 201. 


He unmasked him as an agent of Satan and bade him from 
his presence; he showed him up as a stumbling-block in 
the way; and he exposed the root of his folly in a worldly 
mind. Never had such withering words from the lips of 
the Master fallen upon poor Peter; but he richly deserved 
the reproof. This is what comes of our attempting to 
hinder God’s ways and to put finishing touches on his 
pian. We frequently slide down into worldly views and 
utter foolish speeches. 

Jesus was not to be turned aside from his duty and his 
cross by any such suggestion. He had set his face stead- 
fastly towards Jerusalem and thither would he go. The 
way of Christ is not the way of the world. ‘‘Then said 
Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow 
me.’’ 


18. Tue TRANSFIGURATION 
Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36 


It is significant that in all the three Gospels in which it 
is recorded the transfiguration, which probably occurred 
on or near Mount Hermon, is closely connected with the 
announcement that Jesus had just made of his coming 
crucifixion. This unexpected and startling revelation must 
have shrouded the disciples in deep gloom: it seemed the 
utter disappointment and destruction of all their hopes. 
They needed a glimpse of the divinity that was hidden in 
Jesus and of the glory that lay beyond the cross to dis- 
perse the darkness and sustain and inspire them. Possibly 
also Jesus himself, as he drew near to his passion, needed 
a fresh assurance of the Father’s presence and love. / 

The transfiguration met this need for both disciple and 
Master. It was a revelation of power that the cross could 
not erush. It shot its splendor through the gloom and 
kindled despondent faith and hope into new strength and 
joy. 

The transfiguration is a mountain scene and ranks with 
Sinai and Calvary among the loftiest summits of sacred 
story. Jesus with Peter and James and John, his most inti- 
mate and trusted disciples, climbed the mountain slope to 


202 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


a place of prayer. It was night, and Jesus engaged in 
communion with the Father. 

Presently the disciples were aware that a mysterious 
change was being wrought in the dim and dusky figure of 
the Master. His face began to shine and his clothing to 
emit gleams and sparkles of light. The strange luminosity 
grew into effulgence until his countenance was radiant and 
his raiment dazzling white. His whole person seemed 
steeped in splendor, a glory from within was streaming 
through the veil of his flesh. 

There is a mystery here whose border we may not cross. 
There were divine possibilities in Jesus of which this trans- 
figuration gives us a glimpse and hint. It would seem 
that his divinity was hidden by the veil of his humanity 
and that for a moment its glory was kindled and burned 
through. 

In a weaker degree Moses was transfigured when, after 
his forty days of communion with God on Sinai, his face 
shone; and they that looked on Stephen at his trial ‘‘saw 
his face as it had been the face of an angel.’’ Thus even 
the human spirit, when intensely kindled, shines through 
the flesh and in a degree transfigures it. Of Daniel Web- 
ster it is recorded that, for several hours after he had de- 
livered his great oration at Bunker Hill, his face wore an 
indeseribably grand expression that awed those who came 
into his presence. Character carves the countenance. Syd- 
ney Smith said of Francis Horner that the Ten Command- 
ments were written on his face. ‘‘Human physiognomy,’’ 
says Victor Hugo, ‘‘is formed by the conscience and the 
life, and is the result of a multitude of mysterious excava- 
tions.’? Some people have become so sanctified by the 
Holy Spirit that they wear a heavenly aspect and are 
verily transfigured into the likeness of Christ. 

It was as he prayed that Jesus was transfigured, and it 
was after forty days of communion with Jehovah that the 
face of Moses shone. Prayer kindles the soul into intense 
consciousness of God, and it is then that the glory of holi- 
ness shines through. 

Two visitors from the heavenly world now appeared 
upon the scene, Moses and Elijah, themselves shining with 
glory, and talked with Jesus. Few facts in the gospel 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 203 


story are so deeply and richly significant. Moses, repre- 
senting the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets, are 
here associated with Jesus, the Messiah whom they foretold 
and prepared the way for, thus binding the Old and the 
New Dispensations together into unity. Redemption is the 
same through all ages and forms one plan. 

Immortality is here brought to light. These are travel- 
ers returned from the other world, clothed in the same 
bodies transfigured with light prophetic of the resurrection 
body. They were in the possession of the same faculties 
and speech that they had in this world so that death and 
heaven do not change the essential constitution and indi- 
viduality of the soul. They talked with Jesus about ‘‘his 
decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem’’ so that 
redemption is still the subject of interest in heaven and its 
point of intensest glory is the Lamb slain from the foun- 
dation of the world. If heavenly inhabitants are so inter- 
ested in this redeeming love, they must find it a subject of 
greater glory than all the starry spaces and splendors 
through which they may pass, and there is no greater and 
worthier subject that can engage our minds. 

As the visitors were departing Peter spoke up in a be- 
wildered state of mind and proposed to build three taber- 
nacles that they might remain on that mountaintop. It 
was good to be there, but that was no place to stay. Relig- 
ious rapture should not become a luxury that we wish to 
enjoy and that causes us to forget the great world below 
lying in sin and sorrow and needing our help and healing. 

A cloud now overshadowed them and a voice came out 
of the cloud, saying, ‘‘ This is my beloved Son: hear him.’’ 
The cloud was a symbol of God’s presence, but one that 
hid him from view: the voice was the voice of God, setting 
his seal on his Son. The cloud concealed and the voice 
revealed. The cloud shut the mystery and splendor of the 
Father’s face out of sight, but the voice brought him near 
and declared his will. It is the glory of God to conceal a 
thing. He always hides from us much that we could not 
bear, but lets us know enough to have a clear path for our 
feet. 

The voice died away in the silence, the cloud melted into 
the invisible, and Jesus was found alone. The transfig- 


204 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


uration glory had vanished from his person and he was 
his ordinary self. The vision splendid had faded into the 
light of common day. Intense ecstatic experiences cannot 
last. Nerves would snap and the brain break down. We 
eannot always live on the mountaintop. 

They went down from the height to the plain below to 
heal an epileptic boy. Jesus transmuted that great white 
splendor on the mountaintop into a shining stream of 
merey to heal sick and troubled people and to irrigate the 
wilderness of the world and make it rejoice and blossom 
of rose. Splendid visions and fine emotions are vain unless 
they are carried down to the plain and transmuted into 
sympathy and service. ~ 

The disciples held their peace and told no man. They 
did not boast of their experience and blab it out. Some 
things we should not tell. Let us climb the mount of 
prayer and communion until we are transfigured before 
God: then let us come down into the world and say noth- 
ing about it, but get to work and heal some troubled soul. 


The mount for vision; but below 

The paths of daily duty go, 

And nobler life therein shall own 
The pattern on the mountain shown. 


CHAPTER V 


THIRD YEAR: THE LATER JUDEAN MINISTRY 
THE YEAR OF OPPOSITION 


The transfiguration may be taken as marking the end 
of the Galilean ministry. Although he did some further 
work there, yet his ministry around the Galilean lake was 
now practically closed. So quickly had the promising pop- 
ularity of the opening and middle course of his career in 
Galilee subsided into suspicion and growing hostility. The 
end was now looming into view and could no longer be post- 
poned. Jesus steadfastly set his face towards Jerusalem, 
and neither the mistaken opposition of friends, as of Peter 
at Caesarea Philippi, nor the growing opposition of avowed 
enemies, could deter or delay his proceeding along the road 
of duty towards his fate on the eross. 


1. Tae Man Born Burnp. John 9. 


Passing by many incidents that happened on the way 
on the final journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, we again find 
him in the capital city. He attended the Feast of Taber- 
nacles, which was the national thanksgiving week of the 
Jews and was celebrated in October, and a little later oc- 
curred the incident we shall now consider. He was now 
under strict surveillance, and the Pharisees were keeping 
close watch on his doings. The healing of a blind man 
precipitated the conflict and hurried the course of affairs 
towards the fatal end. 

As Jesus passed by this man blind from birth the disci- 
ples were moved to ask him, ‘‘Master, who did sin, this 
man, or his parents, that hé was born blind?’’ The pitiful 
sight of this man only suggested to them a cool, critical, 
eruel, theological question: not, How can we get this man 
out of his blindness? but, How did he get in? They were 

205 


206 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


only curious to know how the trouble began; not, how it 
might be ended. Not only so, but they went the length of 
fastening on the unfortunate man a cruel suspicion; and 
if they could not charge it to him, then they would unload 
it on his parents. This is not altogether ancient history. 
We may do this very thing. It is always easier to be criti- 
eal than correct. 

Jesus answered, ‘‘Neither hath this man sinned, nor his 
parents: but that the works of God should be manifest in 
him.’’ All misfortunes cannot be connected with personal 
guilt. The Book of Job disposed of that theory. Jesus did 
not stop to inquire and did not care how the man got into 
trouble: his only concern was to get him out. 

Here is another contrast between the disciples and the 
Master. In the presence of pitiful human affliction they 
could only think of a curious theological question, he was 
filled with practical compassion; they were concerned only 
with how the trouble began, he was concerned only with 
how it might be ended; they were disposed to add to the 
poor man’s misfortune the further charge of personal fault, 
he was disposed to take both misfortune and fault away. 
They coldly speculated, he acted. The poor man’s ex- 
tremity was his opportunity. 

In the presence of the world’s blindness and sin and sor- 
row, let us not coolly speculate as to causes and attribute 
misfortunes to other people’s fault, but touch blind eyes 
with healing hands and put our shoulders under others’ 
burdens. 

Action immediately followed. Means were used. Even 
in his miracles Jesus kept near to nature, and the natural 
and supernatural may be closer together than we think. 
In using salve of clay on the eyes of this blind man the 
great Physician honored the medical art. The ‘‘faith cure’’ 
undivoreed from any means receives little sanction from 
this act. Salvation itself is not a magical process, but defi- 
nite means are used and it follows a line of strict causa- 
tion. ‘‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is 
trie 

The blind man himself was given a part in the heal- 
ing. ‘‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.’’ Jesus gave effi- 
ciency to the means, but the man himself had to use them. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 207 


Had he refused or neglected to do this, his eyes would 
never have been opened. Divine sovereignty and human 
agency must work together at every point. 

‘‘He went his way therefore, and washed, and came see- 
ing.’’ A new world opened before his wondering eyes, at 
first dimly and then in increasing clearness. The valley 
of the Kedron rolled below him in a flood of color, the 
temple flashed its golden roof above him, the sky was pain- 
ful splendor, the way back was a path of beauty, and he 
saw the face of Jesus. And when Jesus opens our spiritual 
eyes we behold wondrous things and there is a new glory 
on the very grass. 

The return of the blind beggar restored to sight created 
a sensation among the neighbors. There was a commotion 
among them as they disputed as to his very identity, but 
he said, ‘‘I am he.’’ And it took bravery to do this as it 
instantly drew upon him the persecution of the Jews who 
now had no toleration for the unpopular Nazarene or for 
any one that acknowledged any relation with him. 

Pressed still further and more hostilely on the point the 
restored man gave utterance to the most direct and pow- 
erful evidence of faith any soul can have: ‘‘ Whether he be 
a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas 
I was blind, now I see.’’ What a good ereed is this 
utterance! It is short, has but one article, comes to the 
point and rests on the rock of experience. Standing on this 
fact we can defy all opposition and doubt. 

At this point the Pharisees appear on the scene, and 
from this moment they plague and pester the man with all 
kinds of questions to catch him in a trap. They first seize 
on the fact that the alleged deed was done on the Sabbath 
day, and that was condemnation enough for them. Others 
of their number, however, took a different point of view, 
and when they were in danger of falling out among them- 
selves they adopted another line of attack, saying, ‘‘We 
know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we 
know whence he is.’’ 

The man now grew exceedingly bold and delivered to 
them a logical lecture on theology, concluding with the 
unanswerable declaration, ‘‘If this man were not of 
God, he could do nothing.’’ Is not this the strongest evi- 


208 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


teas of the divinity and saving work of Christ to this 
ay? 

This reply enraged the proud Pharisees beyond all self- 
control and they retorted, ‘‘Thou wast altogether born in 
sin, and dost thou teach us?’’ Their pride could do not 
more than explode in these words and this act that really 
only exposed their furious impotence. 

The closing scene is a beautiful one. Jesus found the 
man and inquired of him, ‘‘Dost thou believe on the Son 
of God?’’? The man answered, ‘‘Who is he, Lord, that I 
might believe on him?’’ Jesus was quick with the full rev- 
elation, ‘‘Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh 
with thee.’’ Was it not to a disreputable Samaritan woman 
that Jesus first revealed himself as the Messiah? Did 
not the angels first announce the good news of the Saviour’s 
birth to shepherds? Verily not many wise and mighty 
are chosen to hear the best news of God, but humble souls 
who have not been spoiled with their own conceit and 
pride. Then came the confession, ‘‘Lord, I believe. And 
he worshiped him.’’ 


2. Mary AND MartTHA 


Matthew 26: 6-13; Mark 14: 3-9; Luke 10: 38-42; 
John 12:1-11 


After the break with the Pharisees in Jerusalem over 
the healing of the man born blind Jesus passed the rest of 
his ministry outside the city and chiefly across the Jordan 
in the region of Perea. During this last winter of his life, 
28-29 A. D., many important incidents occurred and dis- 
courses were uttered, such as the bringing of the children 
to Jesus (Matthew 18:1-14), the sending forth of the 
seventy disciples (Luke 10:1-24), the healing of blind 
Bartimaeus (Mark 10: 46-52), the conversion of Zacchaeus 
the tax collector (Luke 19: 1-10), the rejection of the rich 
young ruler (Luke 18: 18-23), the cleansing of ten lepers 
(Luke 17:11-19), the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-46), 
and the great parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prod- 
igal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. We ean only 
take a look into the home of Mary and Martha. 

We here (Luke 10: 38-42) find Jesus paying his first 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209 


recorded visit to that house in Bethany which, more than 
any other place during the last year of his ministry, was 
home to him. Here he found rest and hospitality and 
friendship, and here he spoke words that still relate to 
vital points in our homes. Jesus during his ministry had 
no home of his own, but he gladly entered into homes and 
irradiated them by his presence and exhibited behavior 
as perfect in form as it was beautiful in spirit, and he is 
now making all homes better. 

Two sisters were in this home whose contrasted temper- 
aments complicated their domestic relations and who rep- 
resent different types of human personalities and of Chris- 
tian character and service. 

Mary was the passive sister who sat at Jesus’ feet, a 
rapt listener to his wonderful words. She is a type of a 
meditative person who draws apart at times from busy 
activities for reading, meditation and communion, sitting 
at the feet of great teachers, thinkers, poets, prophets, and 
entering into the secret place of prayer. 

Martha was the active sister, who when Jesus appeared 
as a guest forthwith set about preparing a meal, and 
there was a clatter of dishes out in the kitchen, and a 
rushing around and a general air of haste and confusion 
in the house. She is a type of an active and practical 
person, overloaded with work, always busy to the point 
of distraction, buried in the kitchen or office and seldom 
rising into the higher calmer region of the spirit, super- 
abundant in labors, but deficient in meditation. 

These two sisters misunderstood each other and came 
near to clashing in the very presence of Jesus. And these 
two types may easily misunderstand and criticize and 
berate each other. The pushing hustler may have small 
respect for the quiet thinker who seems to doe nothing 
but sit and read and meditate, and the thinker may under- 
rate the practical worker as.a shallow and sordid person 
and fail to appreciate his real worth in the world. 

We should know that it takes all kinds of people to 
make a world, different types and temperaments to blend 
their varying individualities into a stronger and richer 
unity, and this should make us broad and sympathetic 
in judging one another. We have these different tem- 


210 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


peraments in the home and church and community and 
we should learn to understand and adjust ourselves to 
one another and live and work together in mutual har- 
mony. 

The scene now shifts to Simon’s house and we find 
Jesus a guest at this table. Mary also was present, and 
she did a characteristic thing on this occasion. Brooding 
over the mystery of the impending death of Jesus she 
brought an alabaster jar of spikenard, and, snapping off 
the slender neck, poured the costly fragrant ointment on 
the Master, anointing his person and filling all the room 
with the perfume. It was a beautiful Oriental expres- 
sion of devotion and love. 

A strange thing now occurred. Some of the disciples 
saw Mary’s act with surprise and indignation, and whis- 
perings began to pass around among them and these found 
outspoken expression from Judas, ‘‘Why was this waste 
of ointment made? For it might have been sold for more 
than three hundred pence, and have been given to the 
poor?’’ These rough fishermen did not appreciate Mary’s 
fine act. They were square-headed, hard-fisted, practical 
men used to counting pence, and had no sentiment 
in them. They thought that she had wasted her costly 
ointment and had nothing to show for it, whereas it might 
have been sold for hard cash with which she could have 
done much practical good and had something to spare for 
herself. If Mary loved Jesus, why did she not simply 
tell him so and save her ointment? 

This pence view of things is still common enough 
among us. There are people who look on all things in 
this light. They measure everything in feet and pounds, 
and especially in dollars and cents. They eall for sta- 
tistics and refuse to believe in anything that cannot be 
put down in a column of figures. They come into a church 
and ask for the number of converts and baptisms and fig- 
ure out how much they cost apiece and make comparisons 
with other churches and ministers to see who are saving 
or getting the most people at the least expense. Like 
Gradgrind they believe in ‘‘facts, Sir, hard facts.’’ 

Now the money view of things often has its time and 
place and then may be decisive. Statistics have their use 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 211 


and must often be compiled and consulted. There is much 
expenditure of money that is waste and worse and ought 
to be stopped. But there is saving that is loss, and there 
is apparent waste that is wealth. The money view may be 
a money vice, and in some cases statistics can tell us every- 
thing except the truth. 

The finest things in the world cannot be measured and 
bought or sold. We can compute the size and weight of 
the earth, but not the value of the sunset and the blue 
sky. We can weigh the newborn baby in the scales, but 
not the mother’s love for her child. Character cannot be 
measured with a tapeline or sold by the pound. Love 
cannot be bought or sold in the market, any more than 
can sunbeams or bits of gorgeously colored clouds. We 
have slipped far away from the spiritual into the material 
when we begin to talk of pence in connection with devo- 
tion and love. Affection, heart, spirit, are not in the same 
elass with money and cannot be compared with mountains 
of gold. 

There was one person present on this occasion that 
deeply appreciated Mary’s act: Jesus. ‘‘Let her alone,’’ 
he said to these cold critical disciples; ‘‘why trouble ye her? 
she hath wrought a good work on me. ... She hath 
done what she ecould.’’ No grander eulogy was ever pro- 
nounced on man or woman. It is the brightest crown that 
ean be placed on any human brow and is a more imperish- 
able monument than marble shaft or tablet of brass. Yet 
Mary had done no great thing as men count greatness. 
She was not that finest idol of the world, a woman of 
genius. She had not written a great book, or charmed 
the world with her song. She had no wealth or influential 
family connections. She was only a plain home-keeping 
woman, not to be distinguished outwardly from countless 
others. And she simply broke a jar of ointment on Jesus - 
as the expression of her devotion to him. But her fine 
act greatly pleased and deeply touched Jesus and cheered 
his heart. 

This beautiful deed that men so criticized and scorned 
has spread its fragrance through the whole world, and 
it is literally fulfilled that wherever the gospel is preached 
Mary receives her memorial of honor, 


212 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


3. Tue TrRIUMPHAL ENTRY 


Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19: 29-44; 
John 12: 12-19 


We have reached passion week and enter upon the final 
scenes. So important and precious are its events that 
nearly one-third of the Four Gospels and nearly one-sey- 
enth of the entire New Testament is devoted to this one 
week. 

On the morning of Palm Sunday there was a stir in 
Bethany and along the road leading to Jerusalem. It 
was understood that Jesus was to enter the city that day. 
Arrangements were completed, and in due time the pro- 
cession started. Jesus rode on an ass, the humblest of 
animals, and the disciples carpeted the dusty roadway 
with greenery and their own many-colored garments, 
while their hosannas rang out over the hills. The proces- 
sion would not have compared with the triumphal entry 
of a returning Roman conqueror, but it meant more for 
the world. 

As the procession reached the summit of the Mount of 
Olives, the holy city broke upon the view. It is an im- 
pressive spectacle even at this day, but then it was one 
of the wonders of the world. The city sat like a jeweled 
erown on the brow of Mount Zion. In the foreground 
rose the marble walls of the temple of stainless whiteness, 
erowned with its flashing gilded roof; in the background 
stretched the streets and squares of the city, and over 
it all lay the spell of a thousand years of patriotic and 
sacred associations. 

When he saw the city, ‘‘Jesus wept.’’ What a strange, 
incredible, unaccountable interruption of these festivities 
of the hour! How the disciples must have been amazed 
at his tears. Only twice is it recorded of Jesus that he 
wept: at the grave of Lazarus and on this occasion. In 
the former instance, as the word means, he shed silent 
tears; but on this occasion, as the word means, he wept 
aloud, he broke down and sobbed like a child. A child 
cries at a touch, a woman’s tears lie near the surface, but 
a man’s tears are buried deep and it requires some over- 
mastering emotion to unseal and break up their fountain. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 213 


And these tears of Jesus grow all the stranger when 
we consider the circumstances of the hour. It was the 
springtime and a mass of fresh colors lay palpitating on 
the landscape, the air was balmy with the fragrant breath 
of spring, and over it all was the splendor of a Syrian 
sky. Did not Jesus appreciate nature, and how could he 
weep in the midst of so much beauty? Jerusalem also 
was the chosen city of God, the holiest city on earth, dear 
to the heart of Jesus himself by every patriotic and sacred 
tie. Let him go and weep great hot tears over apostate 
Samaria or pagan Rome, but will he not lift his hands 
in blessing and his face beam with benediction over Jeru- 
salem? It was also the hour of his triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem in recognition of his rights as king: shall he 
not share in the festivities and joy of the celebration? But 
when he saw the city he ‘‘wept over it.’’ Again we won- 
der at these strange tears. 

Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem? First, because 
of the sinfulness of the city. Any city is a pool of in- 
iquity and wickedness with depths of degradation that 
sink into hell, and if we could only see deep enough we 
would weep over it. Jesus saw to the bottom of that city 
of a million people, and the sight drew tears from his 
eyes. 

He also wept over Jerusalem because it had rejected 
him. What is the deepest sin of any city? Not its social 
vice, for this may be a sin of frailty, but guiltier are its 
spiritual sins of pride and selfishness and hardness of 
heart. Jerusalem was chosen of God that it might pre- 
pare the way for and receive the Messiah, and now it 
was casting him off and getting ready to crucify him, and 
this was the iron that most cruelly entered the soul of 
Jesus. 

He also wept over the city because he saw its coming 
doom. There it sat on its hill all unconscious of impend- 
ing judgment, and yet Jesus saw the Roman legions gath- 
ering around it and shutting it in and sweeping in slaugh- 
ter through its streets and leaving it a smoking heap of 
ashes and broken stones, and the prospect caused him to 
sob like a child. 

Deepest of all Jesus wept over Jerusalem because he 


214 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


loved it. It was dear to him and often would he have 
gathered its children in his arms, but they would not. 
This is the deepest root of God’s sorrow over the world: 
he loves it and so loved it as to give his only Son for it. 

Having wept over the city, what did Jesus now do? 
Did he simply spill his tears on the ground and pass on 
unconcerned? No, he turned his weeping into working, 
his tears into toil, his sympathy into service, and his sor- 
row into a great salvation. Some people like to indulge 
in sad emotions as a kind of sentimental luxury and even 
like to ery provided it does not cost them anything. But 
such superficial emotionalism is weakening and may 
wither the heart into dust. Emotion is good only as it 
imparts motion to the will and moves it to practical worthy 
action. 

Jesus, having wept over Jerusalem, went over into that 
city and up into its temple and drove out the thieves and 
robbers and faced and condemned with splendid bravery 
and seorn the principal offenders, the doctors of divinity 
and chief men of the city: he cleaned up that town, and 
then he paid the price as he laid down his life outside 
the city wall for the redemption of that city and of all 
the cities of the world. In vain do we weep over our 
city unless we also are willing to pay the price of its 
redemption in service and sacrifice that may cost us dearly 
and even life itself. 

But what came of this triumphal entry with all its 
pomp and pageantry and promise of a royal coronation? 
Was Jesus crowned on this day? No, nothing came of it. 
Having condemned the priests, Jesus ‘‘left them and went 
forth out of the city.’’ The great day was over and noth- 
ing had resulted from it: Jesus was not yet king. 

And never will he be king by such means. Doubtless 
the disciples had had high expectations and thought that 
the processions and banners and shouts would surely earry 
Jesus to his throne and themselves into the chief offices. 
Deep and tragical must have been their disillusionment, 
as ours will be if we put our trust in such means. But 
Jesus himself entertained no such dreams and experienced 
no disappointment, for he knew that the kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 215 


4, CERTAIN GREEKS 
John 12: 20-36 


On Monday and Tuesday following the triumphal entry 
Jesus went into the city from Bethany, teaching and heal- 
ing, while the Pharisees and scribes were endeavoring to 
entrap him and plotting how they might compass his 
death. 

‘‘Certain Greeks’? came up to worship at this feast. 
These were not Hellenistic Jews, or Jews from Greek 
countries speaking the Greek language, but genuine Greeks 
who were converts in some degree to Jewish faith and 
worship. They heard of Jesus and wished to know more 
about him. They therefore found Philip, whose Greek 
name betrayed his Grecian affinity, and made to him their 
request: ‘‘Sir, we would see Jesus.”’ 

Philip seems to have realized that this apparently or- 
dinary request was fraught with more than ordinary sig- 
nificance, and so he first reported it to Andrew, another 
disciple with a Greek name. These two disciples went to 
Jesus and reported to him this request for a personal 
interview. 

So far this incident suggests nothing extraordinary. 
People were frequently seeking interviews with Jesus, and 
these Greeks were only two or three people more. What 
significance attaches to this fact, why report so trivial 
an incident? But trivial incidents may be the germs of 
tremendous consequences, as the first acorn contained all 
the oaks in the world. The moment this request was re- 
ported to Jesus it produced upon him an extraordinary 
effect. Hardly any other incident in his whole ministry 
affected him so profoundly as this. Instantly he exclaimed, 
‘‘The hour is come that the Son of man should be glori- 
fied.’’ 

What bearing has this on the request of the Greeks, 
what is the psychology of this strange answer? These 
Greeks were suggestive. To the common mind they would 
have been only a few strange-looking foreigners, but to 
the prophetic imagination of Jesus they were radiant with 
significance and opened a wonderful vision of glory. These 
Greeks were Gentiles, heathen from the great world out- 


216 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


side the chosen people. They represented the pagan world 
at its best, its most brilliant and cultured race. 

What were these Greeks but the forerunners of a great 
multitude that would come to Christ out of that world 
from the east and from the west and from the north and 
from the south, the first fruits of a vast harvest that was 
to be gathered out of every land and clime? A single 
drop of rain that comes splashing down on the hot dusty 
earth may seem altogether trivial in itself, but it derives 
immense significance from the fact that it is the first 
drop of a copious shower that will saturate the thirsty 
ground and gladden every living thing. The first tiny 
green blade that pushes up through the clods of the wheat- 
field rejoices the heart of the farmer because he sees 
it is the pioneer of a million other blades that will shoot 
up through the pores of that field and presently cover 
it with golden grain. A few things are not few when 
they are the forerunners of many things. 

Jesus rejoiced in these inquiring Greeks because he saw 
that they were the budding prophecy that pledged him 
the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts 
of the earth for his possession. With prophetic vision he 
saw himself in possession of this inheritance and out of 
his exultant consciousness he exclaimed, ‘‘The hour is 
come that the Son of man should be glorified.’? We need 
such faith that in small seeds we may see the promise 
and potency of great harvests. 

Suddenly this joyous consciousness of Jesus changed and 
swept into a shadow. The painful thought came to him 
that except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, 
it abideth alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He 
saw the cost of the great victory which had just filled him 
with a sense of triumph. 

How was he to gain the world? He knew that he was 
already rejected by the Jews. Might he not now go with 
these inquiring Greeks out into the Gentile world and try 
his fortunes there? Might not the intellectual Greeks, so 
reasonable and so religious, give him a readier reception ? 
Might not his journey through pagan lands be a march of 
triumph that would bring the nations into his kingdom? 

Did any such perilous thought beat against his mind and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 217 


heart at this hour? Did Satan again offer him all the 
kingdoms of this world if he would forsake the way of the 
cross? The devil in the temptation in the wilderness only 
left him ‘‘for a season,’’ and has he here returned? When 
he goes away he is always ready to come back. 

Certain it is that Jesus east any such alluring vision 
down, as he did on the mountain. He clearly foresaw that 
not by thus saving his life could he save the world, but 
only by losing it could he reach his kingdom. The grain 
of wheat with all its wealth of nourishment and golden 
beauty must be buried in a grave and perish that it may 
shoot up into a green stalk and blossom and multiply itself 
a hundred fold. Nature is full of such sacrifice. Life 
always costs life. The weak must suffer for the strong, 
and the good for the bad. 

This principle reaches intense expression in our human 
world. This is the meaning-of motherhood. The parent 
must sacrifice for the child, and one generation for the next. 
Our liberties are the costly victories of many battlefields. 
All our inherited blessings are the transmuted blood of 
countless ancestors who suffered and died for us. If no 
more grains fell into the ground and perished there would 
be no more sheaves of wheat; and if there were no more 
lives laid down for others in this world there would be no 
more harvests of human welfare. 

This principle reaches incomparably its highest expres- 
sion in the cross of Christ. Had Jesus forsaken the cross 
and gone with these Greeks in the hope of winning the 
world without sacrifice, we would never have heard his 
name. That grain of wheat would have been saved, but it 
would have remained alone and never would have sent a 
harvest down to us. But beeause Jesus fell from his cross 
into his grave, his Life is now springing up in our life and 
is everywhere enriching the world. 


5. Tur Lorp’s SUPPER 
Matthew 26:17-36; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-30; 
John 18:1-80; I Cor. 11: 23-26 


Wednesday of passion week Jesus remained in Bethany 
in seclusion and rest. It was the lull before the storm. 


218 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


He knew that his hour was now come. Calmly he rested 
and gathered strength for the supreme trial. On Thurs- 
day afternoon the preparation for the Passover was made, 
and in the evening, which according to the Jewish reck- 
oning was the beginning of Friday, the Passover was eaten 
and the Lord’s supper was instituted. 

As they were eating the disciples were startled by the 
sudden declaration of Jesus, ‘‘ Verily I say unto you, One 
of you shall betray me.’’ This unexpected announcement 
filled the disciples with alarm. Such baseness excited their 
horror. Could it be possible there was such treachery 
lurking amongst them? And they began to say, one by 
One cls 1b 8b 22 7 

This was a better question than, ‘‘Is it you?’’ There 
are hidden possibilities in us of which we may be seldom 
or never conscious, and we should be more concerned in 
finding out our own sin than that of others. The disciples 
wanted to know the guilty one, but Jesus left the point 
uncertain that all might be warned. 

Then Jesus uttered a deep mystery of divine providence. 
‘The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but 
woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is be- 
trayed!’’ Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are 
here strangely interlinked. Jesus ‘‘was delivered up to 
die by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,’’ 
and yet man is held responsible for his death. God’s plan 
is wide enough to include our most wicked acts, and yet 
it leaves our free agency and responsibility untouched. 
He permits but does not cause our evil deeds. 

‘‘And as they were eating, Jesus took bread.’’ The 
Lord’s Supper was not an abrupt creation, but a further 
evolution. The new ordinance grew out of the old and was 
the fulfillment and perfect blossom of the past. Jesus 
came not to destroy but to fulfill, and Christianity is not a 
new faith but the final outgrowth and fruitage of the old 
faith. 

The few words instituting this ordinance are among the 
most precious in the Gospels and in all the literature of 
the world: ‘‘And as they were eating, he took bread, and 
when he had blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, and 
said, Take ye: this is my body. And he took the cup, and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 219 


when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all 
drank of it. And he said unto them, this is the blood of 
the covenant, which is shed for many.’’ 

Man cannot live by the bread of earth alone: the soul 
has its deeper hunger and must have proper bread or die. 
Christ is the bread of life that cometh down from heaven, 
and this bread and this cup ever symbolize to the believer 
his body broken and his blood shed as his sacrifice for our 
redemption. 

The outward emblems are simple and unadorned, but 
the inner meaning is deep and rich. The significance of 
any sign is not to be measured by the nature of the sign 
itself. The flag of our country is only so much colored silk 
or cheap muslin, and yet what a mighty meaning does it 
carry wherever it floats, representing the law and order, 
the power and majesty, the history and glory of a great 
nation. A little lock of hair carefully preserved may seem 
to the undiscerning eye of a stranger of slight significance, 
but to the bereaved mother it suggests thoughts and mem- 
ories that are too deep for tears. So this bread and cup 
may seem common and meaningless to the world, but to 
believers through all the ages they have been and are pre- 
cious beyond any other symbol in the world. 

‘‘This do,’’ said Jesus to his disciples, ‘‘in remembrance 
of me.’’ Why did Jesus want to be remembered? Partly 
for his own sake. He had a human eraving for such re- 
membrance and the thought that he would be forgotten 
and his very name be lost in oblivion would have been 
painful to him. Immortality is wrapped up in this deep 
yearning of the heart: we cannot believe that we are only 
creatures of an hour and will quickly pass into the night 
of forgotten names. Jesus craves this remembrance and 
as long as this bread and cup pass from hand to hand 
among his followers, he will have this reward and be sat- 
isfied. 

Jesus also wanted us to remember him for our own sakes. 
Memory is one of the ties that bind us to him, a vital ar- 
tery through which his teachings and influence and life 
pass into us and become incorporated in our life. This 
commemoration is one of the means by which at intervals 
we are brought into close and tender fellowship with him 


220 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


and renew our pledge of loyalty to him, and it could not 
pass out of our lives without serious spiritual loss to our 
souls. If ever Christ is forgotten in this world, Christian- 
ity will wither and be blown away and itself be forgotten. 

The ordinance also has in it a gleam of prophecy. It 
looks back upon the past in remembrance, but it also looks 
forward into the future ‘‘till he come’’ in that day when, 
as he promised, ‘‘I drink it new with you in my Father’s 
kingdom.’’ It thus links Christ’s first with his final com- 
ing. How slender and frail seems the thread of contin- 
uity and yet how long it has lasted. How perishable are 
the elements and yet how imperishable the memorial! It 
is one of the oldest things in the world and will yet outlast 
all the fabrics of human hands. Men make every effort to 
perpetuate their name in the world: they write books or 
paint pictures, or they rear marble shafts or pile up vast 
pyramids of stone. But the books are soon forgotten, the 
marble soon crumbles into dust, and the huge pyramid dis- 
appears or its very meaning is lost in oblivion. 

This bread and cup is the only material monument Jesus 
Christ left to his memory. It seems frailer than a thread, 
and yet it has survived without a break through all the 
revolutions of nineteen centuries, outlasting cities and em- 
pires. It must have in it some substance and vitality that 
the world will not let die. It has deep rich roots, but it 
has not yet come to its perfect blossom and ripe fruit. 

‘“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the 
Mount of Olives.’’ Having instituted and partaken of 
such an ordinance it was fitting that they should sing. 
Right under the shadow of the cross, Jesus planted a song 
blossom. He opened the service of his Supper by giving 
thanks and closed it with a song. Always he could find 
something to be thankful for and to sing about; in his 
darkest hour he was full of thanksgiving and praise. He 
lived with God ‘‘who giveth songs in the night’? (Job 
30:10). 

He joined in this hymn and then went straight to his 
agony and trial and passion. If we are united in fellow- 
ship with him, we can sing hymns of faith and praise and 
then go out to do our work or out into the night to bear 
our cross. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 221 


6. GETHSEMANE 


Matthew 26: 36-46; Mark 14: 32-42; Luke 22: 39-46; 
John 18:1 


After the closing hymn of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus and 
his eleven disciples, Judas having left the Twelve to carry 
out his traitorous plot, went out of the city near the hour 
of midnight across the Kedron to the garden of Gethse- 
mane on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. This 
Garden of Sorrow is the real battlefield of the cross. Geth- 
semane won the victory of Calvary. Out of this hour of 
agony and prayer Jesus emerged calm and strong for the 
final hour. We must win our battles before we come to 
them in secret prayer and gathered strength. 

At the entrance of the garden Jesus left eight of his 
disciples and with the other three went on deeper into the 
shadows to engage in prayer. Prayer was the prepara- 
tion for his passion. He wanted to see full and clear the 
light of his Father’s face before he stepped into the final 
darkness. He sought to harmonize his will into perfect 
unison with the Father’s will: he knew he could then bear 
the cross. 

‘‘And he taketh with him Peter and James and John.’’ 
The three witnesses of the transfiguration were also wit- 
nesses of the agony in the garden. They saw Jesus on the 
mountaintop steeped in splendor and they saw him in 
the dusk of the garden bowed under bloody sweat and 
sorrow; by such scenes were they fitted to be witnesses for 
him. 

Why did Jesus, leaving the other disciples behind, take 
these three with him? Partly as an inner guard against 
interruption, but mainly for the sympathy and support 
of their presence. They were the close circle of disciples 
that understood him best and trusted him most. It was a 
beautiful but pathetic exhibition of the humanity of Jesus 
that in his hour of trial he wanted his dearest friends near 
by. Their simple presence helped to support and comfort 
him; their shoulders were under his burden; he was so 
much stronger by reason of their added strength. Solli- 
tary suffering is doubly hard to bear, and sympathy is a 
wonderful power to lighten a burden. 


222 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


When Jesus with his three disciples was buried deep in 
the seclusion and shadows of the garden a mysterious dread 
as the horror of a great darkness came upon him. He 
was ‘‘in an agony’’ and ‘‘began to be sore amazed and to 
be very heavy and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding 
sorrowful unto death.’’ We cannot enter in the secret of 
this anguish, for it involves roots and relations that 
stretch infinitely beyond our understanding and expe- 
rience; it is a burden and a weight of mystery of which 
we can only touch the edge. Its deepest meaning was that 
‘the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all.’’ This 
was the agony that forced from the sensitive quivering 
nerves of Jesus great drops of blood and a pitiful ery of 
sorrow out of his heart. This was the unspeakable cost of 
our redemption. 

Out of this garden floated one of the most wonderful 
prayers in the Word of God; out of this darkness and 
agony came strong trust and sweet submission. ‘‘Abba, 
Father’’: ‘‘Abba,’’ the Aramaic word for Father, is one 
of the very few literal words of Jesus that have come down 
to us, so that in this word we hear the very sound of his 
voice. ‘‘All things are possible unto thee’’: this is the 
strong ground of confidence prayer first stands upon. 
‘‘Take away this cup from me’’: what a pathetic ery is 
this, how human it is. The cup of the cross was now be- 
coming so bitter that Jesus instinctively prayed that it 
might pass from his lips. The humanity of the Son of God 
is here laid bare down to its shrinking quivering nerves. 
‘‘Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done’’: this was 
the strong sure check that Jesus put upon his own will, 
the invulnerable safeguard he threw around himself against 
unholy desires and ignorant petitions, the mighty rock on 
which he kneeled. ‘‘Thy will be done,’’ is a petition that 
should condition all our prayers. 

Three times Jesus returned to his disciples, whom he had 
asked to keep vigil with him, and found them sleeping. 
They were in some degree blameworthy and Jesus singled 
out Peter for a gentle rebuke. At his third return he said 
in calm tones, ‘‘The hour is come.’’ The victory was won. 
Through prayer his will had been wrought into absolute 
unquestioning obedience to the will of the Father, the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 223 


peace of God was upon him, the strength of God was in 
him, and he was now ready to be offered. 

‘*Rise up,’’ he said: ‘‘let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me 
is at hand.’’ Even while he spoke the multitude led by 
Judas appeared at the gate, and Jesus calmly went out to 
meet them. ‘‘ Whom seek ye?’’ he asked of them. ‘‘Jesus 
of Nazareth,’’ they answered, to which he replied, ‘‘I am 
he.’’ 

At this word the soldiers and priests and Pharisees and 
also Judas and the rabble ‘‘ went backward, and fell to the 
ground.’’ Was there ever a more striking instance of un- 
conscious obeisance, a truer witness to the grandeur and 
majesty of the personality of Jesus? Let the letters stand 
out in living light in this record that his enemies, Judas 
the traitor, bitter priests, proud Pharisees and even stolid 
Roman soldiers, at his presence went backward and fell to 
the ground. 

No doubt conscience made cowards of them all, and the 
unexpected and startling appearance of Jesus at the gate 
of the garden in his calmness and bravery precipitated this 
sense of guilt and helped to cast them prostrate before 
him, But his personality must have shone out of his ap- 
pearance in impressive power. The starry radiance of his 
eyes, the lofty majesty stamped upon his countenance, the 
transparent truth and purity and peace of his soul, the 
ealmness and poise of his bearing, all combined into a total 
personality that put a subtle and irresistible spell upon 
all those that came into his presence. 

Judas betrayed his Master to his enemies with a trait- 
orous kiss, and ‘‘so the band and the chief captain, and the 
officers of the Jews, seized Jesus and bound him.”’ 


7. Tue TriaAL 


Matthew 26 :57—27 :31; Mark 14 :53—15 : 20; Luke 
22 :54—23 :25; John 18 :12—19 :16 


The trial of Jesus is a complicated story that falls into 
six parts: three ecclesiastical and three civil. He was 
first taken before Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas 
the high priest, then before the high priest and the Sanhe- 


224 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


drin in an irreguar hearing at night, and again before 
Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin in a regular trial in the morn- 
ing. 

He was then taken before Pilate, as the Sanhedrin 
could not finally pass sentence of death. Pilate, after 
hearing the case, sent it to Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, 
then present in the city, on the ground that Jesus was 
a Galilean. Herod returned the case to Pilate, who then 
passed the final sentence of death. 

Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea with his 
capital at Caesarea down on the Mediterranean, but with 
his residence during the feasts up at Jerusalem, prob- 
ably in Herod’s palace: He was unscrupulous and cor- 
rupt, tyrannical and cruel, and exasperated the Jews into 
fanatical rebellion by repeated acts of sacrilege and vio- 
lence. 

The most momentous event of his governorship, though 
perhaps to him one of the most trivial, was this trial. 
He doubtless looked on Jesus as a contemptible Jew, pos- 
sessed of a harmless delusion, yet had it not been for 
his accidental association with that Jew we never would 
have heard of Pilate. He stepped into the presence of 
Jesus, aS a mote floats into a sunbeam, and in that light 
stands revealed forever. He showed some disposition to 
deal fairly with his prisoner and made some feeble at- 
tempts to release him, but in the end he played the part 
of an unjust judge and a coward, and ‘‘Suffered under 
Pontius Pilate’’ is the indelible stigma that has been 
affixed to his name. 

When the Jews brought Jesus in the gray light of the 
morning to Pilate’s judgment hall, they would not enter 
lest they should be defiled: for men may be intensely 
religious at one point while engaged in the deepest wick- 
edness at another; especially may they be punctilious in 
the observance of petty matters of ceremony while dis- 
regarding and trampling upon moral principles. 

Pilate inquired what accusation they brought against 
the man, and their indefinite and evasive answer was, 
‘Tf this man were not an evil doer, we should not have 
delivered him up unto thee.’’ The charge on which they 
had condemned him before their own court was blasphemy, 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229 


but they knew this would have no meaning and force 
with Pilate and therefore did not mention it, but hoped 
that he would blindly condemn the prisoner at their 
instigation. 

But this was not in accordance with Pilate’s Roman 
ideas of legal procedure; and, as they made no definite 
charges, he attempted to throw the case back into their 
hands by telling them to take the prisoner and judge 
him according to their own law. This was Pilate’s first 
device to shift his own responsibility and get rid of Christ; 
and from this point on it is pitiful to see him tossed 
about in his indecision and cowardice, impaled now on 
one and now on another horn of the ease, vainly trying 
to escape and yet mercilessly driven on by the murderous 
mob to a fatal decision. 

Pilate now saw that he must look into the case and 
took Jesus back into the palace for a private interview. 
The Jews by this time had presented charges to the effect 
that Jesus was perverting the nation, forbidding to pay 
taxes to Cesar and declaring himself a king—charges 
that were false, but that they knew would be effective 
with Pilate. 

Pilate began the interview by inquiring into this point. 
‘‘Art thou the king of the Jews?’’ ‘‘Sayest thou this 
thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning 
me?’’ was the searching question with which Jesus re- 
plied. ‘“‘AmI a Jew?’’ contemptuously answered Pilate. 
‘‘Art thou a king then?’’ persisted the Roman governor, 
who asked the question with a supercilious air. 

The prisoner did not look like a king as he stood there, 
a despised Galilean, humbly clad, so pale-faced and wan, 
with his visage cut deep and marred with lines of sor- 
row. He did not look like a king and nobody thought 
Jesus was a King that day—except himself. 

Pilate appeared before the people and declared, ‘‘I find 
no fault in this man.’’ This, then, was the outcome 
of his investigation. This was the verdict this governor 
and judge, trained in Roman law, pronounced upon Jesus. 
High above the blasphemous charges and clamor of the 
fanatical priests and people rang, and still rings across all 
these centuries, the judicial voice of Pilate, ‘‘Behold, I, 


226 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


having examined him before you, have found no fault in 
this man.’’ 

We might now expect some just and noble action from 
this Roman judge. Having become convinced of the in- 
nocence of the strange prisoner, will he not vindicate 
him? What says the record? ‘‘I will therefore chastise 
him, and release him.’’ What an illogical and impotent 
conclusion was this for a Roman judge! Pilate did not 
have the courage of his convictions and stood timid and 
cringing before the fanatical crowd. 

The shifty Pilate now tried another device. He pro- 
posed to observe the custom of releasing a prisoner at 
the feast. In the prisonnear by lay Barabbas, a notorious 
robber. For a moment the fierce light of this trial falls 
on him. Pilate now thought he saw his chance. So he 
put the question, ‘‘Whom will ye that I release unto you? 
Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?’’ Instantly 
the mob yelled back at him, ‘‘Away with this man, and 
release unto us Barabbas.’’ 

This is what comes of putting Jesus to vote: the majority 
is against him. As between Barabbas and Jesus it is a 
question whether Barabbas will not still get the most 
votes. We need only scratch our own Christian skin to 
find barbarous blood, and the beast in us still yells for 
Barabbas and not for Jesus. 

Pilate is now about to seal his own doom. Before 
doing this he tried to exonerate himself by a vain and 
foolish devise. He took water and in the presence of 
the multitude washed his hands, saying, ‘‘I am innocent 
of the blood of this righteous man: see ye to it.’’ Yet 
by the very terms of his declaration his hands were drip- 
ping with the blood of the righteous Man whom he was 
sending to death, and not all the multitudinous seas could 
wash them clean. The people shouted back, ‘‘His blood 
be on us, and on our children’’—an ominous prophecy 
that is being fulfilled to this day. 

‘‘And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they 
required.’’ So ended the trial of Jesus. Yet the case 
was not closed when Pilate delivered him to be crucified. 
This trial is still open, and every one must record his 
verdict. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 227 


8. THe CRUCIFIXION 


Matthew 27:32-56; Mark 15: 21-41; Luke 23: 26-49; 
John 19: 16-37 


From Pilate’s judgment hall Jesus was led away to 
the place of crucifixion. He was foreed to carry his 
own cross, but on the way an African Jew was compelled 
to share the burden. A company of women followed him, 
bewailing his fate, but Jesus bade them weep, not for 
him, but for themselves. In all that throng he was the 
one man that did not need to weep. 

At last the procession reached the place outside the 
city wall on the north where the great tragedy was en- 
acted. The name of the place was Golgotha in Hebrew, 
Calvary in Latin. The name, meaning a skull, was prob- 
ably given to a small knoll in the shape of a skull and 
it was a significant place for man’s redemption. 

How eloquent of death is a skull! The delicate organs 
of sight and sound that were so expressive are utterly 
gone, leaving only dark caverns staring blankly around; 
and the great golden bowl of the brain, once the seat of 
intelligence and affection and will, is empty forever. 

So is man in his sin. It was fitting, then, that the 
eross should be lifted at Golgotha, the place of a skull, 
for it was to bear the guilt of sin and undo all its work. 
On that cross were to be nailed all the wounds and woes 
that have reduced man to a skull, and from it were to 
issue such virtue and power as would restore his shat- 
tered faculties and make him once more a living soul. 

The soldiers that led Jesus to the place of execution 
promptly dispatched the business. The victim was first’ 
stripped quite naked and scourged with whips, into which 
had been woven bits of iron, until his flesh was all lacer- 
ated and bleeding. He was then laid upon the cross, two 
beams of wood nailed together crosswise, his arms stretched 
out upon the cross beam, and large iron spikes were ruth- 
lessly driven through hands and feet into the solid wood 
behind. 

The cross, bearing its victim, was then raised upright 
and dropped into the hole dug for it with a violent jolt. 
Hanging on four great wounds, naked under a blazing 


228 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


sun, torn and bleeding, with wounds inflaming, fiery thirst 
raging, every nerve quivering and writhing with pain, 
the sufferer endured the mortal agony for one, two, or 
even three days, before death mercifully put an end to 
the scene. And through it all ,the soldiers and rabble 
mocked and jeered and tormented the wretched creature, 
even spitting upon him and brutally striking him as they 
passed by. 

This is what they did when ‘‘they crucified him.’’ There 
by the holy city at the place of a skull, surrounded by 
enemies, cruelly tormented, with only a few women and 
a single disciple looking.on from a distance in silent sym- 
pathy, Jesus hung upon the cross. All the horror of this 
death burst upon him in flames of agony so fierce and 
terrible that in a few hours his life was consumed. Yet 
no spot of guilt was upon him, no secret fault was in him, 
but he was laying down his life for the life of the world. 

The soldiers in charge of the crucifixion received the 
garments of Jesus as their perquisites. Wholly uncon- 
scious that they were fulfilling ancient Jewish prophecy 
(Ps. 22:18), they divided the outer garments into four 
parts, one for each soldier; and then, rattling dice in 
their brass helmets, they gambled for the inner garment 
which was woven without seam. Thus unwittingly do 
men even in their deepest wickedness fulfill far-off divine 
purposes. 

How little these soldiers realized the overshadowing sig- 
nificance of that death while they were noisily busy get- 
ting a few shreds of this world’s goods? Is it not even 
so today? How much of our bartering and living is but 
blatant worldliness and selfishness in the presence of 
Christ? Let the shadow of that cross on Calvary ever 
fall upon our lives to quiet and restrain them into holy 
praise and high endeavor. 

A furious mob raged like an angry sea around the 
cross. There were the preachers and elders of the church, 
Pharisees in their ostentatious piety, Sadducees in their 
silken robes, Roman soldiers in their scarlet cloaks, coarse 
people drawn by low curiosity, and the basest dregs of 
the city. These kept up a constant uproar of jeers and 
taunts and insults and violence against Jesus. And in 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229 


the midst of it all what was he doing? Praying, ‘‘ Father, 
forgive them; for they know not what they do’’: the 
sublimest prayer in the Bible and in all the literature of 
the world. 

A few of the taunts of that ungodly crowd were caught 
up into the Gospels and have come down to us. Like 
everything that was said in derision against Jesus, they 
add to his honor and are so many crowns unwittingly 
placed upon his head. ‘‘He saved others,’’ they jeeringly 
eried ; ‘‘himself he cannot save.’’ No grander eulogy could 
be pronounced even upon the Son of God. Unconsciously 
they placed upon his brow his brightest crown. He had 
‘saved others,’? as many could have then testified, and 
as millions have testified since. But ‘‘himself he could 
not save,’’ for he could have done this only at the cost 
of his devotion to the Father and of his love to the world. 
No imagination could picture the consequences if on that 
eventful day Jesus had saved himself. 

On the top of the cross over the head of Jesus was a 
board whitened with gypsum, bearing in black letters the 
inscription, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 
Pilate wrote the inscription, doubtless as a deadly insult 
to the Jews, but he wrote better than he knew. It was 
written in three languages: in the official Latin, the cur- 
rent Greek, and the vernacular Aramaic—a fact that may 
explain the variations in its forms in the Gospels. Every- 
one present could understand one or another of these 
languages. The gospel is for all men of every race and 
tongue and nation, and it must be put into all languages 
that all may hear it and none may miss its good news. 

The Latin was representative of power in the ancient 
world, the Greek of culture, and the Aramaic of the ecm- 
mon people; and Christ is still king over all: he is mighty 
to rule the strong, he has truth for the intellectual, and 
everywhere the common people hear him gladly. 

Passing by the deeply significant incident of the two 
thieves, we come to the final scene. It was now three 
o’clock in the afternoon and life was about spent. Human 
nerves could endure the strain of suffering no more. The 
last thread was about to snap. With a great cry of mortal 
agony Jesus commended his spirit to his Father, his head 


230 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


fell forward, and he was still. Life had fled and he was 
dead. With wicked hands they had crucified him. 

Only in the presence of this cross can we know man: 
how deep is his sin and how immeasurable is his worth. 
Only in the presence of this cross can we know God: how 
inexorable is his justice and how infinite is his love. 
The love of God in Christ, the worth of man, the sinful- 
ness of earth and the holiness of heaven, all these were 
sloriously manifested when, on that green hill far away, 
the dear Lord was crucified. 


9. THE RESURRECTION 


Matthew 28 :1-10; Mark 16 :1-11; Luke 23 : 56—24 :12; 
John 20:1-8; 1 Cor. 15; Gal. 1: 18-20 


After the crucifixion the body of Jesus was prepared 
for burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and 
laid in a new sepulchre hewn in the rock, and the grave 
was closed with a great stone and sealed. There it lay 
indistinguishable from the dead of earth through Friday 
night, Saturday and Sunday morning. But there was 
a difference in that grave, and in the morning of the 
third day an event occurred that has transformed all sue- 
ceeding centuries. 

The morning opened with the faithful women, who were 
last at the cross, first at the tomb. What were they 
doing? They had bought spices and had brought them 
to anoint the body of Jesus. This loving act has immense 
value as showing the state of mind of these women and 
all the disciples after the crucifixion. They believed that 
Jesus was dead and had no hope or thought of his resur- 
rection. They were utterly bewildered, scattered and 
crushed and supposed that all was over. They were in 
no condition of mind, then, to invent or imagine a resur- 
rection, and any theory of fraud or of hallucination or 
vision on the part of the disciples is a psychological im- 
possibility. This is incidental and undesigned but strong 
confirmation of its reality that meets us on the threshold 
of this event. 

On their way to the tomb the women had wondered 
how the stone that closed it could be removed, but when 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 231 


they reached it they found it rolled away, yet they ‘‘found 
not the body of the Lord Jesus.’’ An angel announced 
to them the great news, ‘‘He is not here; for he is risen, 
even as he said.’’ The women were affrighted, as men of 
stouter nerves would have been, but the angel cried out, 
‘‘Fear not.’’ <A little later Jesus himself greeted these 
women in the garden with the same assuring words. 

Thus opened a day of the most sensational happenings 
and tremendous excitement. The women hastened to tell 
the disciples, but the startling news encountered persist- 
ent unbelief and even scoffs on the part of these men. 
‘And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk; 
and they disbelieved them.’’ Who were these first dis- 
believers in the resurrection? Jewish priests and Roman 
officers? No, but ‘‘the apostles.’’ Peter and James and 
John and all of the eleven believed the story of these 
women was some hallucination of their excited minds, 
‘“idle talk,’’ ‘‘the wild talk of the sick in delirium,’’ as 
the Greek word means. 

Peter was one of the first of the disciples to discover 
the truth. He at first disbelieved the report as idle talk 
and, likely enough, was one of the loudest scoffers. Yet 
he did not rest in his unbelief, but he ‘‘arose and ran 
unto the tomb.’’ John went with him and these two dis- 
ciples ‘‘saw and believed.’’ 

That afternoon two disciples were on their way to the 
village of Emmaus, and a Stranger fell in with them and 
stayed to take the evening meal with them and when “‘he 
took bread’’ he was revealed to them and then ‘“‘he van- 
ished out of their sight.’’ That evening the eleven dis- 
ciples were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem, when 
‘‘the doors were shut’’ and Jesus appeared in the midst 
of them and gave them visible proofs of his person and 
presence. 

Already it was apparent that there was something mys- 
terious in the resurrection body of Jesus by which he could 
appear through closed doors and vanish at will. A week 
later the disciples were again assembled in the upper room, 
Thomas, the persistent sceptic being present, and he was 
convineed and exclaimed, ‘‘My Lord and my God.’’ 

The scene now shifts to Galilee where two appearances 


939 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


are recorded. The first was on the shore of the familiar 
lake of Galilee when the disciples were out fishing in 
their boat and Jesus greeted them as he stood on the shore. 
Impulsive Peter, true to himself, leaped into the sea and 
swam ashore, and when they all followed, Jesus held a 
touching and searching interview with Peter. 

Later he appeared to ‘‘above five hundred brethren,’’ 
whom Paul mentions (I Cor. 15:6), on a mountain. 
‘And when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some 
doubted.’’ Only an honest historian who was simply in- 
tent on telling the truth would have admitted this unfa- 
vorable fact that ‘‘some_doubted.’’ A partisan writer or 
pleader would have made it out that everybody worshiped 
and nobody doubted; the worship was absolutely unani- 
mous! ‘‘But some doubted,’’ calmly and boldly says Mat- 
thew. We can trust a writer and a book that 1s so impar- 
tial and fearless in telling the truth. 

There are ten of these recorded appearances in which 
every opportunity and test of knowing Jesus as the risen 
Christ is used to validate this event. The witnesses are 
numerous, competent and trustworthy who could not have 
been deceived and who sealed their testimony with their 
blood. 

A witness of special weight is Paul who after his con- 
version went to Jerusalem and spent fifteen days with 
Peter and James the Lord’s brother investigating this 
event on the ground. He says he went to ‘‘visit’’ Peter 
(Gal. 1:18), a word which means ‘‘to know by inquiry 
and personal examination,’’ or ‘‘it denotes visits paid 
to places of interest with a view to getting information 
about them on the spot’’ (Expositor’s Greek Testament). 
Paul was a lawyer and he cross-examined these witnesses 
and he made sure of the certain reality of this fact. 

These disciples that at first were bewildered and crushed 
by the death of Jesus were by his resurrection suddenly 
transformed into masterful men who arose in their might 
and planted Christianity on this rock where it stands to 
this day; and they went everywhere preaching this fact 
and with it turning the world upside down. 

This thing was not done in a corner but in the open 
day and in the New Testament is pushed into the light of 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 233 


the fullest publicity as is no other event. There may be 
discrepancies in the narratives, but they are such as might 
be expected in fragmentary accounts in which the wit- 
nesses are giving impressionistic reports of what they ex- 
perienced and no one of them is endeavoring to tell a 
complete story. 

God left no uncertainties hanging around this event but 
placed it on a rock in the broad light of history. It is 
a vital fact in our Christian faith and we can join with 
the accent of conviction in reciting the most ancient creed 
of the church: ‘‘I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, who 
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and 
buried; the third day he rose again from the dead.’’ 


We here give two brief quotations from recent works by weighty 
authorities, the one in the field of critical New Testament scholar- 
ship, and the other in the field of biological science. The first is 
from Dr. G. W. Wade’s elaborate and learned New Testament His- 
tory, who concludes his thorough examination of the narratives of 
the resurrection of Jesus with these words: ‘Thus the available 
evidence, in the case alike of the Eleven Apostles and of St. Paul, 
points to the conclusion that the accounts of their visions of the 
Risen Christ are not mere dramatic expressions of intellectual 
convictions attained solely by reasoning and reflection, but that 
certain visions were creative causes of those convictions” (page 
483). The second quotation is from Professor James Y. Simpson’s 
Man and the Attainment of Immortality: “The fact that we are 
just beginning to understand the effects of mind and particularly of 
emotion upon the metabolism and actual constitution of the body, 
that we are only on the threshold of our knowledge of what is 
involved in the far from static conception of personality, and that 
we have no ability whatever to estimate what would be the effect 
of a sinless spiritual life upon its physical concomitant, forbids us 
to relegate the story of the Empty Tomb to the realm of legend. 
However regarded, the Resurrection is the supreme proof of the 
triumph of spirit over matter” (page 300). 


10. Tor Great ComMMISSION 
Matthew 28: 16-20. 


The time was growing short, and the hour was come 
when the risen Christ must announce his final program. 
A mountain in Galilee was the appointed place for the 
momentous utterance. It was fitting that this program 
should be proclaimed from a mountain overlooking that 
same sea around which he had labored and near which 


234 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


on another summit he had preached the “Mountain Ser- 
mon and sent its great words rolling through the cen- 
turies. And this final message matched the mountain, 
massive and mighty in proportion and power, with its 
summit bathed in the blue of heaven and its base rooted 
deep in the earth. 

On this mountain gathered the company of the believers 
to hear what the Master would say. When a man an- 
nounces his program for the world we want to know what 
his eredentials are, by what authority he speaks. Many 
men have drawn up plans for reorganizing society and 
reforming the world, but their little schemes have come 
to naught because they had no depth of wisdom in con- 
structing them and no power to put them in operation. 
Many philosophers have had dreams of social reconstruc- 
tion and a golden age, but seldom have their dreams in 
the slightest degree affected the course of the world. 

‘“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,”’ 
is the tremendous affirmation with which Jesus prefaces 
his program. He did not set out on the enterprise of 
world-redemption without counting the cost and seeing that 
he had the means, and nothing in it shall fail which all 
power can accomplish. Heaven is on the side of Jesus 
Christ and wheels all its battalions into line under his 
banner. The power that framed the universe and forged 
burning suns on the anvil of creation is at his disposal, 
the constellations are his silent and eternal allies. 

This power flows down into and envelops the earth. The 
whole framework of nature is pliant and obedient to his 
touch. All the streams of human energy, population and 
commerce, wealth and war, enterprise and adventure, in- 
vention and discovery, science and literature and art, flow 
into channels that are guided and shaped and at least 
limited by his hand. The glorified Christ is not an indif- 
ferent or impotent spectator of the whirling panorama of 
this world, but he sets and moves its scenes, and with 
majestic dignity he declares, ‘‘ All power is given unto me 
in heaven and in earth.’’ 

Since all power can do all things, we might think that 
Jesus would with his own hand bring immediate redemp- 
tion to the world. But this is not his method. ‘‘All power 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 239 


is given unto me,’’ ‘‘Go ye therefore,’’ is the divine logic 
of the great commission. Divine power must have human 
means through which to work. The currents of celestial 
omnipotence must have earthly wires along which to flash. 

What enormous power is stored up in a _ steam 
hammer? It can crush a steel bar or deliver the lightest 
tap that will not hurt a child’s finger. What controls 
and guides it? The workman’s hand on the lever. The 
all power of the steam and the puny power of the human 
hand work together in beautiful harmony. Hither with- 
out the other could do nothing, but both together forge 
huge axles on which will roll the world’s commerce, or 
mighty shafts and anchors that will drive ships through 
foaming seas and defy the fiercest storms. 

So the power of omnipotence is lodged in the hands of 
the risen Christ, but it waits for our cooperation to shoot 
forth in the mightiest blows of power, or to slip down 
in the softest accents of love. He stands back of us with 
his power, but we must go at his bidding. 

On what mission were these disciples sent? To overrun 
the world with armies and beat it into submission with 
the sword? To set up a world-empire of earthly power 
and splendor? No, but to ‘‘teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever I 
have commanded you.’’ Standing on that Galilean moun- 
taintop, he was looking out over the world. Jesus was 
no provincial Jew or parochial philosopher, but he stood 
in universal relations and was shaping all coming cen- 
turies. ‘‘Make disciples of all nations,’’ he calmly said, 
foreseeing that all the world would be attracted by his 
truth and love and by the power of his personality and 
kingdom. 

Christianity is no national or racial religion, it refuses 
to stop at any mountain range or ocean shore or political 
boundary, but it 1s a universal faith that like the atmos- 
phere must flow over all mountain ranges and peaks and 
envelop the whole earth. With this command committed 
to us we should not shut the gospel up in our own lives 
and land, but give it universal wings and send it over 
all lands and seas. 


236 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


What is the connection between the divine power of 
Christ in heaven and the human disciples on earth? Is 
he so remote and separated from them that his power is 
unavailable and useless to them? He left no such missing 
link or break in the connection at this point. ‘‘ And, lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’’ 
Jesus in his human person in the world was limited to 
one place. On this account it was expedient that he should 
0 away into the spiritual world whence through his Holy 
Spirit he can be with his disciples everywhere. Sustained 
by his presence apostles went forth preaching the gospel, 
martyrs stepped into the flames, and missionaries are yet 
declaring the gospel to all nations. We also are bound 
to him by the tie of loyalty, and he is ever with us to 
give us the victory that overcomes the world. 

Such was the final program of Jesus Christ; and it cor- 
responds with the course of history and fits this far-off 
century in a way that shows he was indulging in no empty 
dream, speaking no random guesses, but was legislating 
for the ages in these weighty words. This grand utter- 
ance bears the impress of his divinity and proclaims him 
to be the master of the world. 


11. THe ASCENSION 
Luke 24: 50-53 


We have come to the closing scene; and it is worthy 
of its place as the conclusion and climax of this wonder- 
ful Life. Had the story of the resurrection of Jesus been 
an invention or a myth, it would have been a hard matter 
to know how to bring his life on earth to an end. Christ 
was risen and his work was finished: what shall be done 
with him? He must not be permitted to die again, and 
he cannot remain. The critical point in a story is its con- 
clusion. It must keep up the interest to the end and close 
at the highest point, or it breaks down and fails. 

How shall this life, that opened with angel minstrelsy 
in the skies and was attended with many wonderful works 
and has just emerged from the tomb and been crowned 
with the wonder and glory of the resurrection, he brought 
to an appropriate and worthy conclusion? What novelist 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 237 


or poet or painter would dare attempt such a task? But 
give the pen to one of these humble unliterary followers 
of Jesus and he will write a conclusion that is a fitting 
culmination and climax to the whole story, and that, viewed 
simply as a piece of literature and work of art, is one of 
the most perfect and beautiful things in all the books of 
the world. 

How simple and natural it is, how free from all art 
and effort, affectation and self-consciousness, how true to 
reality! The man that wrote the story of the ascension 
of Jesus, we feel, did not invent it and never thought of 
inventing anything. Nobody imagined it, it was a fact, the 
disciples simply related what they saw, and here it is: 


And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his 
hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed 
them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 
And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great 
joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing 
God. Amen. 

Who ean gild that gold, or paint that lily, or throw a 
perfume on that bit of literature? It is art surpassing 
art, simply because the writer had no other purpose than 
to tell what happened on that day at Bethany when the 
risen Lord made his farewell appearance to his disciples 
and was parted from them and carried up into heaven. 

‘*He led them cut as far as to Bethany.’’ We can see 
the little company emerging from the eastern gate of 
Jerusalem, perhaps on a bright May morning when, in- 
stead of the darkness of the crucifixion, all nature was 
clad in fresh colors and seemed to sing in gladness. They 
descend into the valley of the Kedron, wend their way up 
over Mount Olivet and down its eastern slope as far as 
to Bethany, all the while talking earnestly concerning the 
kingdom and the disciples possibly all unconscious of what 
was impending. 

Every step of the way was crowded with sacred asso- 
ciations. In ascending Olivet they passed by Gethsemane, 
where Jesus fought the real battle of the cross. At the 
summit they stood on the spot where he first saw Jerusalem 
in his triumphal entry and wept over the city. And Beth- 
any was dear to him by many ties. There was the house 


238 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


of Martha and Mary, where he had so often dwelt and 
rested. Possibly more than any other spot it was home 
to him. No wonder his feet now found their way to this 
place when he was about to take his farewell look at earth. 
We all want to come home to die. Where we first saw 
the light, there let the final rush of darkness come. Jesus 
was human to the last. 

Why did he lead them out only as far as to Bethany? 
Why did he not lead them all the way and remain with 
his disciples through all the generations and centuries, in 
every land working miracles and speaking as never man 
spake, until the kingdoms of this world were his? Ought 
not he above all others to stay until the end? Yet he was 
the first to go. He led them out as far as to Bethany and 
there he left them. 

How can we explain this? Jesus himself explained it. 
‘It is expedient for you,’’ he said, ‘‘that I go away.’ 
Mark that it was not expedient for himself that he should 
go away. It was no cowardly desertion of his post of 
duty that took him out of the world. But it was expedient 
for the disciples that he should go: he could lead them 
from his throne in heaven better than he could on earth. 
The place for the captain of a steamship is up on the 
bridge, not down at the wheel or in the engine room. 
Lineoln could do more for his generals and soldiers in 
Washington than he could have done for them on the field. 
The ascension of Jesus was the crowning act of his work, 
for it put him in the right place and enthroned him 
over all the world. 

‘He led them out as far as to Bethany’’: he led them 
part way and then left them. This is the way God is 
always leading us. He leads us out as far as the Bible. 
The Bible throws light upon the path of life and yet it 
is never a complete guide-book. It gives us general prin- 
ciples, but hardly ever tells us what to do next. Why 
did God not give us a book containing minute directions 
for every step in life? Because, to say nothing of the 
impossibility of such a book, he means to leave something 
for us to do. He leads us to Bethany and then we must 
find our own way. He assumes on our part common sense, 
a prayerful mind and an obedient will. If we go with 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 239 


Jesus as far as to Bethany, we shall safely find the rest 
of the way. 

‘*And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.’’ This 
is what he had been doing all his life long. He blessed 
the blind when he touched their eyes into sight, the hungry 
when he fed them, the penitent when he forgave them and 
the sorrowing when he comforted them. There are smit- 
ings and cursings enough in the world: let the holy hands 
of the Son of God be lifted upon it in blessing and in 
time its noisy strife and wickedness shall be stilled into 
peace. 

‘*And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was 
parted from them, and carried up into heaven.’’ He came 
under the attraction of a higher gravitation, and instead 
of being bound to this little globule of earth he rose into 
the clouds and vanished into the unseen spiritual world. 
What possibilities this may involve or hint for our glorified 
bodies we do not know and need not speculate. But in 
being carried up into heaven he went to his own place. 
His whole life had been an ascent and another upward 
step naturally and necessarily carried him into heaven. 
He simply went to his own place, back to his native coun- 
try. 

‘*And they worshiped him.’’ They had reason to wor- 
ship him before, but now these humble disciples knew as 
they never knew before that their meek and lowly Friend 
was indeed the Son of God and they could only worship 
him. Worship is the greatest thing man can do. It is 
this that makes him more than a sheep. This is the high- 
est exercise of his highest powers. This is the golden chain 
that binds him to a higher life and another world, by 
which he easts his anchor within the veil. What shall 
the world do in the presence of this Person? Only one 
word is great enough to express it: worship. Crown him 
Lord of all! 

‘‘And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.’’ 
They wanted to stay. There they stood gazing into the 
sky at the point where Jesus had disappeared as though 
they expected him presently to reappear. But while they 
looked, two white-appareled angels stood by them and 
said, ‘‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? 


240 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven’’ (Acts 1:11). 

So we are living between two visits of Jesus Christ to 
this world. He has come and gone, and he will come 
again. But in the meantime we are not to stand gazing 
into heaven. From our worship we must ever return to 
our work. This worship of the risen Christ has now 
widened down through the centuries and its works are 
blessing the world. 


The Life of lives is now finished. It closed, as it began, 
with a note of joy so that all the way through it has kept 
its initial keynote. Of Jesus it is declared that ‘‘God hath 
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”’ 
(Heb. 1:9); he was the gladdest Man that ever lived, and 
his gospel is still good news, glad tidings of great joy to 
all the world. The world is still heavily burdened with 
sin and sorrow and deeply shadowed with gloom, but this 
Life has power to lift the burden and disperse the shadows 
and will at last cause all sorrow and sighing to flee away. 
This shall be finally accomplished when the ransomed of 
the Lord shall return to the new Jerusalem with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads. 

Having followed this wonderful Life from its begin- 
ning through all its years to its glorious end, we shall 
now see how it fares when it steps upon the great stage 
of the world and starts down through the centuries. 


PART IV 
THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY 


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CHAPTER f£ 
INTRODUCTION 


Christianity has now come to its critical hour. Its Christ 
has done his work on earth. He has been ushered upon 
its stage, wrought the signs of his divine Saviourhood, 
taught his disciples, proclaimed his mission and message, 
started his kingdom, crowned his eross with his resurrec- 
tion, and ascended to the eternal world. 

He has gone, and now the critical question is, How will 
his cause and kingdom get along without him? Will the 
hands of these human disciples be strong enough to hold 
the fabric of the new kingdom together and keep it on 
its foundation and build it so that it will stand through 
the ages? Will the story of the life of Jesus now prove 
to be only ‘‘a sweet Galilean vision’’ which will quickly 
fade and leave no trace that can be discovered under 
the dust of the centuries? Or will Christianity spread 
from Jerusalem and start out on a victorious march to 
the ends of the earth? 

This question is answered in the Book of Acts and the 
remaining books of the New Testament. The Acts of the 
Apostles is the continuation of the Four Gospels and con- 
tinues the mission of Jesus as carried on by his apostles. 
It is the fifth volume of the Life of Christ. 

It is a stirring story. It starts out splendidly at Pen- 
tecost with marvelous success and promise, and then 
quickly encounters opposition and persecution. Dark and 
dangerous days follow. But the fires of persecution only 
scatter the sparks and flames and start new centers of 
Christian faith and fervor at widely separated and distant 
points. Christianity is a fire that cannot be confined 
and will burn its way to the great rim of the Roman Em- 
pire and to the utmost frontiers of the world. 

243 


244 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


External obstructions are bravely overcome, but more 
insidious and dangerous internal difficulties and threat- 
ened divisions arise. ‘T'wo epochal questions soon con- 
fronted the new faith: Should the Gentiles be admitted 
to the Christian church? Had this question been an- 
swered in the negative it would have constricted Chris- 
tianity to a Jewish sect and then it never would have 
become a world religion. This question was emphati- 
eally ee in the affirmative and a deadly danger was 
passed. 

Practically the same issue arose in another form: Should 
the Gentile converts be required to submit to the Mosaic 
ordinances such as circumcision? Had this requirement 
been imposed on the Gentiles, again would Christianity 
have been strangled in its cradle and would never have 
gotten beyond its ancestral home. But again the right de- 
cision was reached, and the new faith was freed from the 
swaddling clothes and fetters of the old faith. 

The new faith thus set free could not be confined within 
racial or national or continental limits, but went out from 
Jerusalem in all directions, overleaping all boundaries, and 
stepped from Asia into Europe and stopped not until it 
had reached Rome and swept a circle of Christian churches 
around the Mediterranean shore. 

It is an inspiring spectacle to witness these conflicts and 
triumphs and this grand march. It is full of picturesque 
scenes, critical epochs, dramatic moments, masterful per- 
sonalities, and splendid heroisms and martyrdoms, unsur- 
passed in any other period of human history. 

What book can compare with the Acts in vital impor- 
tanee and. thrilling interests? Properly seen and under- 
stood it is a grand unfolding panorama set on the mighty 
stage of the Roman Empire that kindles the imagination 
and enchains and fascinates the attention. It is one of 
the most stirring stories as it is one of the most important 
books in the Bible. In the following studies of the Spread 
of Christianity, as in the Life of Jesus, only selected points 
and scenes can be presented, and the endeavor will be 
made to paint the picture with some life and color so as 
to make it realistically vivid and practical. 


CHAPTER II 
THE CHURCH IN JERUSALEM 


When the disciples returned from the ascension at Mount 
Olivet they assembled in an upper room in Jerusalem and 
proceeded to choose an apostle to take the place of the 
apostate Judas. Two disciples were selected who had com- 
panied with them ‘‘all the time that the Lord Jesus went 
in and out among’’ them and so were qualified by their 
personal experience of Jesus to serve in the apostleship. 
Lots were cast and the lot fell upon Matthias and ‘‘he was 
numbered with the eleven apostles.’’ Nothing further is 
ever recorded of him, and this may leave in doubt whether 
the lot is the best way of choosing an apostle or a minister. 


1. Tue Day or Pentecost. Acts 2 


The time was propitious, for the harvest feast drew an 
immense multitude of people who thus furnished a com- 
pact mass and rich soil in which to sow the gospel and 
who, in turn, became winged seeds to waft it out over the 
world. 

On this day the disciples were all in one place. There 
were not many of them, but they were all there. Not one 
member of the church was missing to leave a gap in the 
little audience, and the circuit was continuous and com- 
plete, ready for the flash of power from above. There is 
power in compactness, and every vacant seat in the church 
is a break and leakage in the current of spiritual energy. 
The disciples were not only in one place, but they were 
all together, or ‘‘with one accord,’’ implying they were 
all blended into unity of mind and heart. There were no 
factions, strifes and strained relations among these church 
members to divide and scatter spiritual power. The Spirit 

245 


246 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


cannot travel along a broken circuit, but must have con- 
tinuous minds and hearts. 

What was the secret of this mother church of all Chris- 
tendom that stands to this day as the greatest church in 
spiritual power and fruitfulness? It was not numbers, 
for it had only a hundred and twenty members. It had 
no scarlet-cushioned pews and stained glass windows, in 
fact, it had no church building at all; it had no money 
in its treasury and did not even have a treasurer; it had 
no choir and pipe organ and no settled pastor or salaried 
preacher. It had no elders, deacons, trustees, no Sunday 
school or missionary soeieties, and no formal or informal 
organization whatever. There was almost nothing there 
that we would call a church, yet never has there been 
such a church since. What did it have? 

It had unanimity; it had one hundred and twenty souls 
fused into one great thought and passion; it was simply 
an open channel free from human clogs through which the 
Spirit of God could flow in unobstructed fullness, and such 
a church was and ever will be drenched and flooded with 
Pentecostal power. 

The human conditions were ready and now the divine 
manifestation came; the Spirit found the continuous cir- 
cuit and flashed forth in power. This coming of the Spirit 
was meditated in and through physical signs, for God ever 
uses material crutches to support spiritual infirmities. The 
wind came as a fitting symbol of the Spirit’s work. 

Ordinarily the air lies around us invisible and impal- 
pable, so soft and still it does not rustle a leaf or fret an 
infant’s cheek. But let the sun play upon it and wake 
its slumbering power, and it begins to blow in breezes and 
to gather into a storm and at length it levels forests and 
lashes the sea. So may the Holy Spirit lie around us un- 
felt and we may think the great Spirit of the universe is 
dead, but when we are in the right condition he gathers 
his energies together and sweeps down upon us in a tide 
of power before which souls are tossed as leaves in a storm. 

Tongues of flame also symbolized the Spirit. Fire as 
it sifts down so silently in the soft sunshine does not seem 
to have much energy, but it makes the whole earth bud 
and blossom, and as it is condensed into the lightning bolt 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 247 


or in the glowing furnace it has enormous explosive and 
motor power. The truths of Scripture are condensed spirit 
as coal and wood are condensed sunshine. When these are 
kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit they develop their 
hidden energy. Our sins burn us. Spiritual things that 
seemed so shadowy and evanescent become intensely real 
and we see them solid. It is as though a new world were 
suddenly opened and we saw God! 

On this occasion Peter, the fisherman-preacher, delivered 
a great sermon from an Old Testament prophecy that went 
as a burning arrow into the bosoms of his hearers so that 
‘‘they were pricked in their heart’’ and began to cry out, 
‘‘Men and breathren, what shall we do?’’ Peter, without 
the hesitation of a moment or the waste of a word, gave 
an answer that exactly and fully met the question of the 
hour. ‘‘Repent!’’ 

This was the first recorded word in the public preach- 
ing of John the Baptist and also of Jesus himself, and 
it everywhere stands in the forefront of the gospel. 
‘‘Change your mind,’’ as the Greek word means, is the 
initial command of the gospel. This change is a voluntary 
act which we can effect by divine grace, and it rolls a 
tremendous weight of responsibility upon us, calling upon 
us to change our minds toward sin and Christ out of in- 
difference into faith and action. So the gospel message has 
not changed in passing from Jesus to his apostles but is 
the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

A wonderful scene now followed. Three thousand souls 
were converted and the little church became a multitude 
in a day. Then the ratio of increase was twenty-five con- 
verts to one church member, but now it is about twenty- 
five members to one convert. If the church today were 
only baptized and saturated with the Spirit as was 
the Pentecostal church, how swiftiy would the kingdom 
march around the world and how quickly would Christ 
reign ! 

The scene closes with a picture that has given much per- 
plexity to Christians. In the enthusiasm and joy of their 
new fellowship these converts practically abolished private 
property and lived together in a state of communism that 
some dreamers consider the ideal state of society. 


248 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


But several considerations modify this view. Whatever 
the nature of this communism, it was their own voluntary 
action and was not enjoined upon them by any inspired 
authority and thus it has no authority over us. It may 
have served a good purpose for a time, but only for a time, 
for it soon came to an end and we hear of it no more. 
Presently we find these early Christians exercising the 
rights of private property, and we also find them in a state 
of poverty so that collections had to be taken up in other 
churches to help the Christians in Jerusalem. Their com- 
munism thus seems to have had the effect of reducing them 
to beggary, as it is doing today on a colossal scale in Rus- 
sia. Private property Ras been and is a main root uf hu- 
man progress, the beginning, said John Fiske, of civiliza- 
tion. 

Nevertheless, the spirit of these first Christians in this 
act was altogether admirable as an expression of their 
brotherhood and shines as a splendid star across all these 
countries. 


2. Tue Martyrpom or StepHen. Acts 6-7 

Pentecost was quickly followed by persecution. The high 
hopes ef swift success were soon dashed to the ground. 
Peter, who preached so powerfully and eloquently on the 
day of Pentecost, in a few days landed in jail. The apostles 
began street healing and preaching with such success as 
to attract crowds and then to draw upon them the notice 
of the priests. They thought they had made an end of 
Jesus, and here he was back upon them with new terror, 
risen, it was said, from the dead! 

They arrested and tried to stop the preachers, but they 
could not be stopped and sending them to jail had no effect 
upon them, for they declared, ‘‘We cannot but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard’’ (4:20) and ‘‘We 
ought to obey God rather than men’’ (5:29). Men of 
such motives and might were not to be intimidated or re- 
strained by priestly threats or prison bars. And so the 
Gospel message that started off with such power and mo- 
mentum on the day of Pentecost irresistibly pushed its way 
forward against bitter opposition, and the three thousand 
converts of the first day soon grew to five thousand. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 249 


Christ’s promise to his disciples that he would be with them 
was being fulfilled. 

No sooner had external trouble temporarily subsided than 
internal trouble arose in the church. Growth outran grace. 
The apostles and first Christians were still human with 
enough unsanctified depravity in them to breed dissension. 
Unworthy and false members appeared in the persons of 
Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who attempted to gain 
the popularity of being counted pious to the point of turn- 
ing all their goods into the common fund without paying 
the price of such coveted reputation. They professed to 
have given all, but they were telling a lie; part they had 
secretly held back. Such a sin was so dangerous and deadly 
in the little company that it had to be cut up by the roots 
in an example of solemn warning, and sudden death re- 
moved them. 

Another difficulty presently arose. The apostles were 
doing everything and so were overworked and saw that 
they must have help. Complaints were also being made 
that the charity funds were not being fairly distributed, a 
eomplaint with which the church is familiar to this day. 

A congregational meeting was called and the apostles 
stated the situation. It was enough for them to preach, 
let others be appointed to manage the funds and take care 
of the poor. Thus a new office arose out of this first church 
dissension and seven deacons were appointed. 

This gives us an interesting insight into the develop- 
ment of church government. No inspired system was en- 
joined, but organization grew and was adapted to the cir- 
cumstances as it was needed, and this has been the history 
of the church to this day. Afterward bishops and elders 
grew up in the same way. They were chosen or appointed 
as they were needed to meet the growing demands of the 
expanding church. 

Among these seven deacons Stephen stood first. Noth- 
ing more is known of him than appears in the narrative, 
but in this one event he leaped into a foremost place in 
the history of the church. We hear nothing more of his 
ministrations as a deacon, but he shot far beyond this office 
into power and fame as a preacher and inaugurated a 
momentous evolution in the history of Christianity. Paul- 


250 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


ine doctrine and Paul himself have their spiritual ancestry 
in Stephen. 

In personal character he is described as being ‘‘full of 
faith and power.’’ He was a sympathetic and winsome 
man whose piety was the beauty of holiness. Such men 
are sometimes weak, without offense but also without force. 
But Stephen was also a man of power. He combined 
amiability with strength, beneath his gracious nature lay 
stout bones, and iron burned in his blood. 

Such a man needed looking after by the opponents of 
the new faith and they were not slow to rise against him. 
We are not told what doctrine Stephen preached, but we 
may gather it from the’charges brought against him. Per- 
jured witnesses were suborned against him, and while their 
accusations were false in spirit, yet they were true in 
substance, for Stephen did not deny them and his own 
defense bore them out. 

It was false that he spoke blasphemy, but it was true 
that he did preach doctrines which seemed to these oppo- 
nents destructive and sacrilegious. He did speak ‘‘against 
this holy place, and the law,’’ though not in the sense and 
in the spirit which they imputed to him. It was doubt- 
less true that the witnesses heard him say, in substance 
if not in words, ‘‘that Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this 
place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered 
us,’’ for Jesus himself asserted this very thing. When he 
declared to the woman of Samaria, ‘‘ Woman, believe me, 
the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, 
nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father’’ (John 4:21), 
he boldly swept the temple and the customs of Moses off 
that mountaintop forever. To an orthodox Jew no more 
radically iconoclastic and terribly destructive blasphemy 
could have been uttered. 

Stephen was thus the first Christian preacher to grasp 
and boldly proclaim the truth that the old dispensation 
must disappear before the new. He began to shake the 
Christian church loose from the narrowness and bondage 
of Moses (necessary and good in its day) and let it out 
into the glorious liberty of Christ. This process cost the 
church a long conflict in which Paul was the magnificent 
champion of liberty, but it was Stephen’s inspired genius 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 251 


that first saw this epochal truth and his bravery began the 
battle. 

We see, then, why the Jews were so furiously incensed 
against Stephen’s doctrine; they believed their religious 
life was at stake; Moses, who has been the innocent cause 
of so many ecclesiastical controversies, was being attacked. 
Yet the customs of Moses were not being destroyed in the 
sense the Jews supposed and feared, but were being ful- 
filled; they were simply blossoming out and ripening into 
their own proper fruitage and glory. 

Christianity was not a revolution but an evolution. It 
did not destroy Judaism any more than the flower destroys 
the root when it blooms; it superseded it only as noon- 
day splendor displaces morning twilight. The same process 
has been going on through all the Christian centuries and 
is still in operation as new truth enlarges and illuminates 
the old. We may be needlessly alarmed as we see changes 
going on in the church and the world of religious truth 
as though the new were destroying the old, when in fact 
it may be that Christ is only revealing the many things 
he has yet to say unto us and is thus guiding us into larger 
truth and fuller meaning and wider application (John 
16: 12-15). 

As the charges were being made against Stephen, the 
members of the council fastened their eyes on him and 
saw an unexpected and wonderful sight. His face grew 
transfigured before them and became as it had been the 
face of an angel. Stephen seems to havo discerned that 
his hour had come and that his blood would be the first 
to baptize the church. Some great thought or passion 
kindled his soul into flames that shone through his flesh 
and lit it up with heavenly radiance. The man was so 
nearly pure spirit that his body was the thinnest possible 
veil that could scareely contain and conceal the burning 
inner glory. 7 

With his soul thus aflame, Stephen began his defence. 
His long address is one of the most notable speeches in the 
Bible and repays careful study and analysis. The drift 
of his argument is proof from Scripture that God did not 
always confine himself to the holy land and sacred places 
but went outside of these in revealing himself. The address 


202 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


was broken off before the argument was completed, but its 
logic and conclusion are clear. His whole handling of the 
history makes it plain that Stephen is not hostile to Moses 
and is a loyal Jew. But he shows that God had not re- 
stricted his grace to any one ‘‘place’’ and ‘‘custom,’’ but 
had revealed himself in many places and through many 
prophets. 

This rapturous speech of Stephen was too much for his 
judges, and, stopping their ears that they might not hear 
the hateful words, with shouts of rage they rushed upon 
him and, in violation of Roman law, hurried him through 
the gate of the city to the place of stoning, where murder- 
ous missiles flew hurtling through the air and Stephen was 
quickly struck down. 

At this point in the dreadful business first appears on the 
pages of Seripture a new name which, though it rises red 
as blood in the gloom, yet presently shines out as one of 
the most splendid stars in all the firmament of human his- 
tory. ‘‘The witnesses laid down their garments at a young 
man’s feet, whose name was Saul.’’ In this incriminating 
attitude is first seen him who afterward so powerfully 
preached the faith he here attempted to destroy. 

With the wonderful prayer upon his lips, ‘‘Lord, lay not 
this sin to their charge,’’ altogether in the spirit of the Mas- 
ter’s prayer on the cross, ‘‘Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do,’’ Stephen ‘‘fell asleep.’’ What 
a triumph of the grace and power of Christ that could 
draw from the bleeding lips and choking voice of the man- 
gled and expiring martyr such a self-forgetful, forgiving, 
noble prayer as this! Verily his blood shall be the seed 
of the church. 


CHAPTER ITI 
THE GOSPEL SETS OUT ON ITS WORLD MARCH 


Jerusalem was the cradle of the Christian church, but it 
contained a vigorous nursling that could not long be con- 
fined within infantile limits, and we shall now witness it 
unloosing its swaddling clothes and learning to walk and 
overleaping its bounds and setting out on its world march. 
It had been born in Judaism and nursed at its breast only 
that it might go forth as a world religion to proclaim 
universal salvation and build the kingdom of God around 
the globe. This world adventure of Christianity is the 
most inspiring spectacle in the New Testament and in the 
whole Bible. 


1. Tur Gospet mu Samaria, Acts 8:1-25 


Persecution is a powerful propagandist. Following the 
death of Stephen it broke out violently in Jerusalem and 
that holy mountain flamed with fire against the new faith. 
The city that had crucified the Lord now began to slaugh- 
ter the Lord’s disciples. 

But persecution only scattered the believers in the gos- 
pel, and presently other cities near and far were infected 
with the new faith and the holy contagion began to spread 
through the world. Fire scatters sparks and flames and 
rapidly extends into a wide conflagration. 

Philip, the evangelist, went down to the city of Samaria 
and there started an evangelistic campaign that stirred 
the whole city and resulted in a multitude of conversions. 
Samaria was a hard place in which to begin. The Jews had 
no dealings with the Samaritans, for there was deep racial 
and religious enmity between them. The simple fact that 
Philip was a Jew was an almost fatal fact against him. 
And his message was also an unpopular one in Samaria, 

200 


204 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


for Philip now asked these enemies to give up their ances- 
tral faith and accept Jesus, a crucified Jew, as their Mes- 
siah. The situation was further complicated by the pres- 
ence in the city of one Simon, a sorcerer, who had given 
out that he was some great one, admitting the fact himself, 
and he had so hypnotized the people that he had them. un- 
der his thumb. He stood in the way of the gospel. 

Yet nothing daunted or discouraged, Philip went to 
work, and soon the gospel proved itself the power of God. 
‘‘The people with one accord gave heed,’’ and results fol- 
lowed. Unclean spirits were cast out and palsied people 
were healed, and ‘‘there was great joy in that city.’’ How 
eould there help but be joy with such work going on in 
the town? There was the joy of purity and liberty and 
health, release from superstition and fear, for they were 
liberated from the black art ana evil influence of the sor- 
cerer Simon. The gospel thus brought forth its proper 
fruits in this first town outside of Jerusalem in which it 
was preached. The town was cleaned up and righteousness 
blossomed into joy. 

Word came up to Jerusalem of the great mectings down 
in Samaria, and the apostles sent Peter and John to help 
in the work. Time was when John wanted to burn a Sa- 
maritan town for an ineivility (Luke 9:54), but now he 
went to the capital of Samaria to help in a great revival 
in that city; it was not the destructive fire of a conflagra- 
tion that he wanted to see sweeping through its streets, but 
the beneficent warmth of the Holy Spirit. 

It is deeply significant that the first Christian mission 
was sent out from Jerusalem to Samaria. These two moun- 
taintops crowned with rival temples had flamed excom- 
munication and defiance at each other, but now they were 
being fused into unity and brotherhood in their common 
Christian faith and spirit. Two of the deepest and bit- 
terest differences among men, race and religion, were now 
closed up by this gracious work of the gospel. 

The same gospel has come down through the centuries 
and spread over the world, dissolving the same barriers and 
melting men of all races into one mind and heart. It is 
true that it has met with much refractory material in its 
march of brotherhood and its own disciples have not al- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 259 


ways manifested this spirit, but this is its true nature, and 
we should be filled with the missionary spirit that will move 
us to love all men and send them the gospel. 

What did Peter and John do when they arrived in Sa- 
maria? They did not assume an attitude and air of eccle- 
siastical authority over the converts and take charge of the 
meetings, but they prayed for them that they might re- 
eeive the Holy Spirit. It appears that there was some- 
thing defective in the baptism of Philip in that he had 
baptized his converts into the name of the Lord Jesus only 
and not also of the Holy Spirit. This defect was cor- 
rected by Peter and John by administering the full rite, 
and then the Holy Spirit was received. 

Peter and John did not pray that the church in Samaria 
might have an imposing building and an impressive ritual 
and a learned and eloquent pastor, but that it might have 
the Holy Spirit: they were keeping this first missionary 
church close and true to the Pentecostal church. If any 
church have not the spirit of Christ, it is none of his, what- 
ever else it may have or whatever historic name it may 
bear; but, having this gift and spirit, all things else will 
be added unto it in their due time and proportion. 

Having completed their mission in Samaria, Peter and 
John ‘‘returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel 
in many villages of the Samaritans.’’ Having done their 
work in the capital city, they did not disdain to work as 
they passed along in the smaller towns and villages; they 
were not looking out for large fields and conspicucus 
places in cities and did not despise the day of small things; 
but they gleaned sheaves along the roadside and improved 
every opportunity in wayside ministries. 

Philip, also, having completed his work in Samaria, 
passed on to other points and went toward the south 
‘‘unto Gaza, which is desert.’? He may have thought that 
he had been sent from a fruitful work in Samaria down 
into a desert where there was no prospect of converts, but 
here he fell in with an important officer of the queen of 
the Ethiopians, who under his ministry was converted and 
baptized. Though he found him by the roadside in a des- 
ert, yet he was doubtless the most important convert Philip 
ever won to Christ, and so Providence made no mistake in 


256 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


sending him from Samaria to Gaza. God never makes 
any mistakes with reference to us, and our best guidance 
is his providence. 


29. True CONVERSION OF PatL 
Acts 9:1-31; 22:1-21; 26: 1-23 


Paul was a Hebrew university graduate and a lawyer 
and influential rabbi in Jerusalem, and also a Roman cit- 
izen. Born in Tarsus in Asia Minor, he was bred in Greek 
culture and could quote from Greek literature. Three civ- 
ilizations, Hebrew, Greék and Roman, thus met and min- 
gled in his blood. He was a man of acute and powerful 
intellect, of logic all compact, yet of poetic and fiery tem- 
perament, a keen thinker and forceful writer who could 
sound the depths of philosophy, or let loose his thoughts 
on the wings of imagination, and an impassioned orator 
who could put the spell of his eloquent speech on vast 
audiences. 

Paul is probably the most strongly marked character in 
the Bible. He was unique in his angular individuality and 
in the mixture in his nature of incongruous elements and 
discordant moods, and was intense and uncompromising 
in his principles and convictions. 

Especially did he stand in sharp contrast with his Mas- 
ter and Lord. Jesus was country-bred and was rural in 
spirit and speech and manner. He lived mainly a quiet 
life, avoiding cities and crowds and carrying on his work 
in the by-ways of Galilee, and he was supremely serene 
in heart and temper, yet aggressive and bold enough on 
the proper occasion, frequently retiring for rest and med- 
itation, bathing his soul in the beauty and mystic influence 
of mountain and sea and dwelling on the heights in com- 
munion with God. 

Paul was city-bred and his ears were full of the tumult 
of the market and the uproar of crowds and mobs. He 
was intensely active and ardent, militant in spirit, always 
ready for a fight and scenting the battle from afar. With 
almost the last scratch of his pen he exhibited his charac- 
teristic spirit and summed up his career in the triumphant 
declaration, ‘‘I have fought a good fight.’’ Although he 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 257 


often traveled through grand scenery and frequently sailed 
the Mediterranean, yet there is not in all his letters a single 
allusion to the beauty of nature or any indication that he 
ever heard a bird sing or observed so much as a blade of 
green grass. The glorious architecture and art of Athens 
had no interest for him except as furnishing an apt text 
for a sermon, and versed as he must have been in Greek 
literature he never quoted it but once and again for a 
sermonie purpose. He was so absorbed in his one idea and 
objective that he had no time or thought for anything else. 
‘‘This one thing I do,’’ was his principle and rule, and 
never did a great man more imperiously concentrate and 
compress his powers into one narrow channel and swift 
impetuous torrent of energy and life. 

Many-sided, variously-gifted, unspotted in character, 
deeply religious, terribly conscientious, tremendously in 
earnest in his convictions and volcanic in his emotions, by 
turns cool and ealm or hot and passionate, at one time 
proudly boastful and at another in the depths of self-hu- 
miliation, adventurous and masterful as a pioneer preacher 
and missionary, absolutely devoted to his Lord, and brave 
unto death, he was one of the great men of his age and of 
all ages and has helped to shape all the Christian cen- 
turies. 

Such was the man who is the weightiest single witness to 
the resurrection of Christ and the greatest preacher and 
missionary and practical organizer and profoundest theo- 
logian in the history of Christianity. We have already con- 
sidered him as a letter writer, and we now take up his life 
as he steps into our narrative on the stage of his dramatic 
conversion. 

This epochal event in his life burnt itself deep into his 
brain and left a vivid impression which he never could 
forget or misunderstand or confuse in its objective reality 
with any subjective illusion or delusion. The story is told 
three times in the Acts in chapters 9, 22 and 26, in the last 
two instances by himself, and he never tires of it. It is one 
cf the most dramatic and interesting pages in the history 
of Christianity and remains to this day as one of its 
epochal events. 

At first Paul was a bitter enemy of Christ and his gos- 
pel. An intensely orthodox Jew in birth and blood and 


258 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


training and zeal, he regarded Christ as the greatest heretic 
and most dangerous man in the world, and his soul blazed 
with hatred toward his disciples and he breathed out fire 
and slaughter against them. He stood holding the clothes 
of those who stoned Stephen the martyr, as we have seen, 
and next we find him out on the way to Damascus to carry 
the work of death far beyond Jerusalem. It took him 
several days to journey on horse from Jerusalem 140 miles 
northward to Damascus. 

This must have been a time of cooling down and quiet 
meditation in his fiery soul. The excitement and passion 
of his work in Jerusalem had subsided and he found him- 
self out in the solitude dnd silence of the desert under the 
solemn Syrian stars. If there was any still small voice in 
him, it now had a chance to be heard. Possibly the expir- 
ing prayer of Stephen strangely awoke and rang through 
his soul. He unexpectedly found himself troubled over his 
work. He was surprised to find his convictions were not 
so unanimous and sclid as he had supposed. Cracks and 
fractures began to cleave his conscience into doubts. He 
felt himself on the eve of an impending crisis; already 
conscience was ripe for revolt. 

This view of his psychological condition is not explicitly 
disclosed in the record, but it is in accordance with human 
experience and it is suggested by the statement in his nar- 
rative that ‘‘as I made my journey’’ the crisis came. 

Upon this thoughtful and troubled man conversion fell. 
Damascus was near and decision could not be delayed. The 
Holy Spirit found him trembling upon the point of doubt 
and bore down upon him at this critical moment. 

As in all conversions, human and divine elements were 
interblended and worked together. There were spectac- 
ular features in his case that were supernatural and unique, 
but the same essential principles operate in every converted 
soul. A blinding blaze of light burnt through the sky 
above him and the proud persecutor was unhorsed. A 
voice was then heard saying, ‘‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me?’’ This was probably the very question that was 
troubling Saul himself. The Spirit touched the sorest 
point in his conscience, piercing his sin. 

Saul answered, ‘‘Who art thou, Lord?’’ Already he 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209 


seems to know the person addressing him as the Lord. A 
wonderful answer was given to this inquiry: ‘‘I am Jesus 
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.’’ This was a startling 
revelation and might well have struck terror into Saul’s 
soul. But he was now fast falling into an attitude of faith 
and obedience. ‘‘What shall I do, Lord?’’ was now his 
inquiry. Already his restless energies are being reversed 
and were eager to flow in the channel of service for Jesus. 
And the answer came, ‘‘ Arise, and go into Damascus.’’ 
Not another word about persecution, but only words of 
kindness and guidance were spoken to the prostrate hum- 
bled man. Saul’s sin was overwhelmed with; God’s merey 
and washed away in a flood of grace. 

Saul was now given further directions as to where he 
was to go and what he was to do, for conversion does not 
answer all questions and clear up all difficulties. It usually 
makes plain only a few steps which on being taken will 
lead us to more light. Saul took these few steps; he rose 
from the ground and went into the city. He immediately 
obeyed his newly found Lord, threw his will into the eur- 
rent of his Master’s will and turned his faith into faith- 
fulness. 

There were doubtless days of profound meditation 
and self-examination in which Paul sat alone with 
himself and thought upon his ways. The past was full of 
pain and the future of problems. He wanted to be sure 
of himself and of his Lord, and he fought every doubt 
through to victory. In Damascus he was baptized and 
‘‘straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that 
he is the Son of God.’’ Thus he turned around and began 
to preach the very faith he had sought to destroy and re- 
ceived his great commission that he was to bear the name 
of Christ to the Gentiles. Christianity won its most pow- 
erful preacher and apostle that day. 

At this point the Epistles of Paul begin to throw light 
upon his life, and he tells us in his letter to the Galatians 
that immediately after his conversion he ‘‘went into Ara- 
bia’? (1:17) and then returned to Damascus and that it 
was three years after this that he went up to Jerusalem. 
How long he remained in Arabia and why he went there 
are not disclosed, but it seems evident that he retired into 


260 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


that desert region for a season of further meditation and 
preparation for his public ministry. This period corre- 
sponds with the ‘‘silent years of Jesus’’ in which he was 
getting ready for his work. Paul also felt the need of strik- 
ing his roots deep into the soil of conviction and gathering 
strength and ripened wisdom and unconquerable resolu- 
tion for the work to which he had been ealled and that he 
might pay the last full measure of devotion to his Lord 
and be faithful even unto death. 


3. PETER AND CorNeEuIus. Acts 10 


The apostles were now carrying the gospel out from Je- 
rusalem in every directidn and Peter went down to Lydda 
and on to Joppa on the Mediterranean where he went into 
the house of Simon, a tanner, and lodged there. Little did 
he know or dream what epochal event would happen to 
him when he went into that house ‘‘by the sea.’’ 

About forty miles to the north was Cesarea and the 
scene suddenly changes to that city. Cornelius was a Ro- 
man soldier, captain of the Italian cohort stationed at 
Cesarea. He is described as ‘‘a devout man, and one 
that feared God, who gave much alms to the people, and 
prayed to God alway.’’ His relation to Judaism is not 
clear, but he was a Gentile that had derived some light 
from Jewish revelaticn and had become a worshiper of Je- 
hovah. He was one of the pious people we find in unex- 
pected places, even out in the heathen world where to this 
day we discover wild-growing saints who compare with 
Christian worshipers in piety as we find wild flowers in the 
forest that rival cultivated blossoms in beauty. God has 
not left himself without a witness in any part of the world, . 
and his Spirit works unseen and unknown in many hearts. 

While engaged in fasting and prayer at three o’clock 
in the afternoon Cornelius had a vision. A bright-appar- 
eled figure stood before him and said, ‘‘Cornelius, thy 
prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in 
the sight of God.’’ The angel now told Cornelius to send 
to Joppa for Peter and gave particular directions how to 
find him and promised that he would speak further. 

Messengers were dispatched to Joppa, and at noon the 
next day as they were drawing near that town, Peter was 


OF THE NEW TESPAMENT 261 


having a vision in which he was being prepared to play his 
part in this complex plot of providence. Vision matched 
vision, and both led on to a great victory. 

At this hour Peter went up on the flat housetop to pray 
and fell into a trance or exalted state of soul in which he 
saw his vision. A great sheet held at the four corners and 
swollen like a sail in the wind was let down upon the earth, 
and its contents were all manner of beasts and creeping 
things that were abhorrent to Jews as unclean. A voice 
commanded Peter to rise, kill and eat. But his shocked 
sensibilities refused to respond to such a command and he 
objected that he had never eaten anything unclean. Peter 
was still a Jew in this point. 

Then eame the voice, ‘‘What God hath cleansed, make 
not thou common.’’ Three times this scene was repeated, 
and then the swollen sheet disappeared up into heaven. 

While he was wondering what the vision meant the three 
messengers from Cornelius knocked on the door and in- 
quired for Peter. He went down to them and heard their 
story and the next day he went with them to Cesarea, 
where he met Cornelius, who recited to him the story of his 
vision and how he had been instructed to send for him. 

This incident gives us a glimpse behind the scenes and 
lets us see how Providence works. These two men, apart 
from and unknown to each other, were prepared for each 
other so that when they met their experiences matched and 
the two played into each other’s hands and worked to- 
‘gether. God is always preparing us for our work and 
preparing our work for us so that when we reach it along 
the path of obedience we shall find it ready for us. 

The story told by Cornelius was heard by Peter with as- 
tonishment and wrought in him a profound revolution. 
Peter’s creed and habits of thought and heredity distilled 
into him out of more than a thousand years of racial his- 
tory experienced a sudden jar at the discovery. Huis most 
deeply inbred thought was that God was a respecter of per- 
sons; that he had put a wide difference between the Jew 
and the Gentile with all the favor on the side of the Jew. 
But this distinction that had been so wide and deep in his 
mind was here suddenly blotted out; in a moment it melted 
away and he saw with amazement that there is no such dis- 


— 262 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


tinction, that ‘‘God is no respecter of persons, but in 
every nation he that feareth him, and worketh’ righteous- 
ness, is accepted of him.’’ 

There is, of course, a sense in which God does respect 
persons: he respects their inner moral character. But he 
does not respect their outer conditions, as the Jews thought. 
Birth and blood, ancestry and, heredity, race and rank, 
wealth and social standing, are not matters that determine 
or influence his relation to and dealing with people; his 
classification runs along no such superficial lines as these, 
but strikes deep into the heart. 

God has no favorites in the sense some people think. 
Sectarianism is apt to breed in us the old Jewish feel- 
ing of exclusiveness, but the Bible is a broad book, the 
world is wide and the Father has many children, and di- 
vine grace flows over all haman inequalities as the atmos- 
phere flows over all valleys and mountaintops. ‘‘ What 
God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.’’ We have 
not yet learned this lesson in all its breadth and fulness. 

Peter now delivered his message. He first gave an 
outline of the grace of God in the gospel. God sent the 
word to the children of Israel through Jesus Christ who 
was anointed with the Holy Ghost and whose life was com- 
pressed into one marvelous shining line, ‘‘who went about 
doing good.’’ Yet the Jews hanged him on the eross, but 
God raised him up and showed him openly. To these facts 
Peter gives his personal testimony as an eyewitness. 

Then Peter declared that he was charged to preach 
Christ unto the people as the Judge of the living and the 
dead, and broadened out his message into the universal 
promise that ‘‘through his name whosoever believeth in 
him shall receive remission of sins.’’ 

This breadth and universality of the divine grace had 
lain latent in the Jewish Seriptures, but now it shone out 
in splendor, and Peter realized it for the first time and it 
came to him as a wonderful revelation and revolution. 
While he yet spake the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard 
the Word, and the kingdom of God there and then began to 
push out across the boundaries of Judaism into the Gentile’ 
world. Peter has now found the same road that Stephen 
and Philip traveled, and a great day is dawning. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 263 


4. First Counc, at JERUSALEM: SHALL GEeNtTILES Br 
RECEIVED INto THE CHuRCH? Acts 11:1-18 


The news of what Peter had done down at Cesarea rap- 
idly spread through Judea and was soon matter of talk up 
at Jerusalem. The report was abroad that ‘‘the Gentiles 
had received the word of God.’’ This raised the great issue 
that could now no longer be evaded, What was to be the 
relation of the Christian church to Gentiles? Were they 
to be admitted on equal terms with Jews, or were they to 
be excluded and the Christian church confined to a Jewish 
sect? This was the greatest issue and epochal decision 
that could confront the church, and history trembled in 
the balance the day the apostles and brethren met to decide 
it. 

The decision was made at a council held in Jerusalem. 
Peter, learning of the dissatisfaction, took with him six 
brethren who had been with him at Cesarea and went up 
to Jerusalem to give account of himself. There ‘‘they that 
were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou 
wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them.’’ 

Who were these ‘‘of the circumecision’’? They were 
Christian Jews that still held to the law of Moses and be- 
lieved that Christian converts should be circumcised. They 
therefore retained all the Jewish prejudices against the un- 
circumcised Gentiles. Peter by eating with Cornelius had 
thus violated their religious creed in one of its most vital 
points and had shocked them beyond measure. <A breach 
of the Ten Commandments would not have been such a 
dreadful scandal in their view. 

So these Jewish converts had not yet gotten a glimpse 
of the splendid breadth and universality of Christianity 
and were still hemmed in and blinded by their own nar- 
row bigotry. They still drew the boundary of God’s grace 
around their own Jewish race, and left the Gentiles out in 
the darkness. They still thought they were the favorites 
of heaven and had a monopoly of its grace, and that all 
who were outside of this pale were left to perish. Let us 
not think that this spirit expired when the last Pharisee 
passed out of the world and it is still lurking in some 
quarters of the church. 

Peter himself had at first been of this way of thinking, 


264 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


not only when he was a Jew, but even after he had become 
a Christian. He now told the story of his conversion to 
these offended Jews. The vision on the flatroofed house of 
Simon the tanner at Joppa, the great sheet with its beasts, 
the command to eat which had so shocked him, the arrival 
at the same hour of the messengers from Cornelius, his 
visit to the Roman officer at Cesarea and the descent of 
the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles ‘‘as on us at the begin- 
ning’’ were graphically described. 

‘‘Then remembered I,’’ proceeded Peter, ‘‘the word of 
the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized you with 
water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.’’ Pe- 
ter had heard Jesus say these words, but he did not fully 
understand the promise at the time and now it began to 
blaze out in its breadth and brightness. All these rays of 
truth and lines of evidence converged into such a flood of 
light and overwhelming proof that Peter could no longer 
stand by his old convictions, but his whole mind and heart 
gave way to the manifest universality of the grace of God 
in Christ. 

The effect of the narrative was decisive upon his preju- 
diced hearers. If Peter had entered upon a theological ar- 
gument with them to try to convert them to his view, he 
probably would only have confirmed them in their opin- 
ions and exasperated them. But this plain recital of facts 
silently undermined their prejudice and the whole struc- 
ture of their hereditary exclusiveness crumbled down. 

‘‘And when they heard these things, they held their 
peace, and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles 
also hath God granted repentance unto life.’’ They also 
could not resist the logic of events and withstand the man- 
ifest grace of God. Their noisy clamor against Peter’s 
irregularity and scandal in associating with the uncireum- 
cised quieted down, they held their peace, often a very hard 
thing to do, they grew attentive and receptive, and they 
ended with glorifying God for his universal grace. 

It was a great day in the Christian church when this viec- 
tory was won. Had these Jewish Christians been able to 
fasten their view upon Christianity and bind it with their 
racial constriction, they would have doomed it to remain a 
Jewish sect and it never would have reached us. This vie- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 265 


tory released it from its Jewish shell in which it had been 
hatched and let it spread its wings for its flight out over 
the world. We need to appreciate and glory in this uni- 
versal breadth of the gospel and proclaim it. far and wide 
that unto all men of every race and nation and class and 
condition God hath granted repentance unto life. 

We see how the truth and the church grew through the 
discipline of controversy. The early church was disturbed 
and torn with these discussions and dissensions as to doc- 
trine and polity so that the first Christian centuries seem 
a sea of strife. And yet it was through these controver- 
sies that great doctrines were wrought out and estab- 
lished, and never did Christianity have a more rapid and 
vigorous growth and win mightier victories than during 
these times. 

Controversy is never to be sought for its own sake, and 
it should be avoided when this can be righteously done; 
but there are worse things than controversy. Dullness and 
deafness to spiritual things are more fatal to life. The 
spirit of investigation and criticism, of revision and recon- 
struction, of unrest and change, of the progressive discov- 
ery of new truth, is the spirit and life of the church. These 
things show that the Spirit of God is working in the church 
and fulfilling the promise of Christ that he would yet re- 
veal many things, and that Christian men are still relig- 
iously alive and thinking. And when discussion and even 
controversy are carried on in a Christian spirit of mutual 
toleration and love, they are sure to issue in some broader 
view of truth and wider and deeper experience of God’s 
grace. 


5. Tur Gospen In AntiocH. Acts 11 : 19-30 


The echoes of the great persecution in the days of Ste- 
phen long reverberated through the world. That violent 
explosion shot flying embers of the church far from Jeru- 
salem and we find them at many points around the Medi- 
terranean shore. One of these points stands out conspic- 
uous as one of the most important centers in the spread of 
Christianity. 

Antioch at this time was a city of half a million people 
and was the third city in the world, Rome being first and 


266 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Alexandria second. It was situated three hundred miles 
north of Jerusalem on the river Orontes, twenty miles 
from the sea. As it was the political capital of Syria and 
a center of commerce and art, it was a city of great 
wealth and architectural magnificence. It had many fine 
temples and theaters, a main avenue running through its 
heart four miles from east to west, paved and lined on 
each side with two rows of columns, and walls, aqueducts 
and bridges, of which the massive but mournful ruins re- 
main to this day. 

While it was the third city in rank it was the first in cor- 
ruption and vice. Near it was the famous grove of Daphne, 
ten miles in circumference, an immense pleasure estab- 
lishment that was a plague spot to all the world. Here 
vice was cultivated as a fine art and sensuality as a rite 
of religion. So infamous and infectious was its evil influ- 
ence that even Rome complained that the Syrian Orontes 
befouled the Roman Tiber. Yet in this hotbed of vice grew 
the white flower of Gentile Christianity and the name 
Christian was born. 

To this city of Antioch came certain of the scattered dis- 
ciples and began to preach the Lord Jesus to ‘‘the Greeks.’’ 
This announcement marks a radical and revolutionary de- 
parture in preaching the gospel. There had been, as we 
have seen, the sporadic instances of Philip at Gaza and 
Peter at Caesarea, but these disciples deliberately and 
openly preached the Lord Jesus to the Greeks, the heathen 
residents of Antioch. All distinctions between Jew and 
Gentile had been blotted from their minds and they saw 
and seized the great truth that Jesus Christ is the Saviour 
of all men without regard to their race or rank or relig- 
ion. Uneircumcision was no longer a bar to conversion. 
The ceremonial law was gone and grace had come. Moses 
was no longer master, and Jesus was Lord of all. 

It was remarkable that this revolutionary policy was not 
inaugurated by the church authorities up at Jerusalem or 
by ordained apostles or deacons, but by unordained and 
unauthorized laymen. Certain men from Cyprus and Cy- 
rene, points far from the seat and sources of Christianity, 
began this business, apparently of their own accord, moved 
by the wider and freer spirit that was bred in the hearts 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 267 


of those out in the field of heathenism in close contact with 
its needs. 

This principle has been frequently exemplified in the 
history of the church. Great movements, such as the Re- 
formation in Germany, the Wesleyan revival in England, 
the Sunday school and the Salvation Army, did not origi- 
nate with ecclesiastical authorities, but with unofficial 
ministers and laymen among the common people. The 
human heads of the church, as represented by popes and 
bishops, conferences and assemblies, are generally con- 
servative and often obstructive, and the Holy Spirit 
usually pours in new life and grows new organs of opera- 
tion down among the people. 

Often new movements start far from the original centers 
of faith. It is the spirit of Christian unity that develops 
among our foreign missionaries and native Christians 
abroad that widens our vision and brings our churches 
closer together at home. 

The news of what was going on down in Antioch soon 
came up to the church in Jerusalem and it was determined 
to send a committee to Antioch to look into the situation. 
Church authorities do not ordinarily start new movements 
but they usually want to manage them after they are 
started; and this is right, provided they sympathetically 
guide them and do not try to obstruct and strangle them. 

The Jerusalem church was fortunate in the choice of its 
commissioner to Antioch. Barnabas was chosen. He was 
himself from Cyprus, not far from Antioch, and was thus 
qualified to understand the people and the conditions in 
that city. Better still, ‘‘he was a good man and full of the 
Holy Ghost and faith,’’ and was therefore a man of broad 
sympathies whose goodness of heart enabled him to ap- 
preciate men and movements that a narrow ecclesiastic 
would have quickly run foul of and condemned. 

When he came to Antioch he saw the grace of God. A 
differently constituted and tempered man might have seen 
something to suspect and brand with the name of heresy, 
but Barnabas saw grace. And he was glad and exhorted 
them all with purpose of heart that they would cleave unto 
the Lord. He saw the new policy was inspired of God and 
he urged it forward; and yet he endeavored to guard it 


268 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


from ephemeral enthusiasm and to guide it along solid 
and permanent lines. 

The vork grew and Barnabas needed help. Not far 
around the Mediterranean shore was Tarsus, Paul’s home, 
whither he had gone after his conversion and had been in 
quiet retirement for about ten years, which may be in- 
cluded in the ‘‘silent years’’ of Paul. Barnabas went 
aiter him. They had been together before. When Paul 
went up to Jerusalem after his conversion and tried to 
join the disciples, they were afraid of him, but Barnabas 
took him up and stood by him (Acts 9: 26-27). Barnabas 
brought Paul to Antioch and for a year these two men, so 
different in type and temperament, worked together in 
preaching the gospel in that city. 

At this point a new name appears in the record that 
shines as a star whose lustre has brightened with increas- 
ing ages and shall never be dimmed. ‘‘The disciples were 
ealled Christians first in Antioch.’’ This name was not 
assumed hy the disciples themselves and, it has been 
thought, was first applied to them in ridicule. Not in Jeru- 
salem, but down in the Greek city of Antioch, famous for 
its witty nicknames, was the new name invented. The 
Greek idlers, seeing that the new religionists were follow- 
ers of a certain Jew named Christ, called them Christians 
in derision and contempt. Possibly the designation was 
considered a happy hit and was greeted with bursts of 
laughter. 

But a new word was born that day into the vocabulary 
of the human tongue that was destined to live for all time. 
Like many another word spoken in ridicule, it has become 
a badge of honor and shines above every other name given 
among men. It may have been a derisive contemptuous 
jest, but it now sparkles as one of the most precious jewels 
in the vast heap of words that men have piled up; it runs 
as a glittering thread of gold through all the web of human 
speech. 

Those Greek jesters spoke better than, they knew and we 
thank them for their word. But now that we have the 
name, we should not dishonor it but strive to live up 
toward it. 


CHAPTER IV 
PAUL’S MISSIONARY JOURNEYS 


At this point Paul, called from his retirement at Tarsus, 
looms up in the narrative as the central figure and fore- 
most leader in the story of the spread of Christianity, and 
beginning with his first missionary journey the Book of 
Acts is practically his biography; and next to the life of 
Jesus it is the most important and thrilling biography in 
the Bible. 


1. Pavu’s First Missionary JOURNEY 
Acts 13-14. Galatians 


The church in Antioch grew in members and strength, 
and then a call came to it for larger service. ‘‘Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul,’’ was the call of the Spirit, ‘‘for 
the work whereunto I have called them.’’ A new line of 
work was to be opened and the foremost leaders and 
strongest men in the church were chosen to go out into 
the foreign field. We might have expected some doubt and 
opposition to this choice. How plausible and strong would 
have been the plea that these two ablest men in the church 
were needed at home. Was not Antioch a great city and 
eenter that ought to be seized and conquered for Christ 
before any further work should be undertaken? If this 
policy were suggested it did not prevail, but the divine call 
was trusted and followed. 

The foreign field is no place for weak men: let the 
ehurch send there her strongest and most gifted sons and 
daughters, and this it has ever done as the long roll eall 
of famous missionaries, such as David Livingstone, elo- 
quently attests. It may have seemed to some a poor use 
and needless sacrifice of Paul to bury him in the obscurity 

269 


270 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


and darkness of superstitious heathenism, but it was the 
same kind of sacrifice as that by which a grain of wheat 
falls into the ground to spring up a hundred fold, and 
Christian Europe is its splendid fruit and justification 
today. 

‘“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed 
unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed unto Cyprus.”’ 
The narrative interblends human 2nd divine action in one 
statement, in one verse attributing their departure to the 
church and in the next verse to the Holy Ghost. Seleucia 
was the seaport of Antioch, twenty miles down the Oron- 
tes at its mouth. Possibly members of the church went 
with the departing mi&sionaries as far as this port, where 
they bade them farewell and saw them disappear on board 
a corn ship on the blue Mediterranean. 

They sailed westward, for this has been the course of 
empire in the spiritual, as in the political, kingdom until 
it has encircled the globe. Never did a ship set sail with a 
more important and precious cargo. It had aboard the 
gospel of Christ and kingdom of God compared with which 
all other freight was as dust and chaff; it had seeds of 
truth and grace that were soon to be sown in Europe and 
in time around the world to bloom on every shore. 

A sail of eighty miles brought Barnabas and Paul with 
John Mark as their attendant to Cyprus, the native island 
of Barnabas, where they began preaching. They worked 
their way westward through the island without anything 
of note happening until they came to Paphos, at its west- 
crn extremity. Here lived the Roman proconsul Sergius 
Paulus. He was a man of serious thought and spiritual 
aspiration who hungered for something better than was of- 
fered by the effete Roman religion. He was some such 
man as Cornelius, possibly another wild-growing saint, 
and there appear to have been many such in the Roman 
empire, and foreign missionaries find them today out in 
the heathen world. 

When Sergius heard of the missionaries preaching a new 
message of salvation he sent for them to come up to his 
palace and desired to hear the word of God. Here was a 
most unexpected and promising opening, and it must have 
been with great hope and gladness that Barnabas and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 271 


Paul declared to him the way of life. But an unexpected 
obstacle was also encountered. Lurking in the shadow of 
Sergius they found his evil spirit and tempter, one Bar- 
jesus, a sorcerer. He was an apostate Jew who had gone 
into the business of fortune telling and magic, a kind of 
religious impostors and quacks that swarmed in the Roman 
world. 

Paul, who at this point forges ahead and takes prece- 
dence of Barnabas in the narrative, unmasked the smooth 
villainies of the tempter, branded him whose name was 
Son of Saviour as a son of Satan, and he was stricken with 
blindness. Trying to blind others, he was blinded himself. 
But Sergius himself believed and was the first convert of 
the expedition. 

When the missionaries ‘‘loosed from Paphos, they came 
to Perga in Pamphylia: and John Mark departing from 
them, returned to Jerusalem.’’ Various conjectures have 
been advanced to explain why Mark left Paul and Bar- 
nabas at this point and went back home, such as that he 
may have thought that Paul was crowding Barnabas, who 
was his uncle (Col. 4:10), out of the leadership of the 
party, or that he thought the preaching of the gospel to 
the Gentiles was being carried too far, or that he lost cour- 
age and could not endure the hardship of the tour. Evi- 
dently Paul at this time thought Mark did not have in him 
the stern stuff of a missionary. 

Whatever was Mark’s reason, Paul did not forget this 
act when they had returned to Antioch and were preparing 
for a second missionary journey over the same ground. 
Barnabas wanted to take Mark along, but Paul opposed 
this, and these two leaders parted company. Paul believed 
that Mark had been unfaithful once and should not be 
tried again; Barnabas, true to his good heart, believed that 
the young man should have a second chance. 

So these apostles were quite human and had their quar- 
rels; but their dissension fell out to the furthering of the 
gospel, for, as we shall see, on the next journey Barnabas 
took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, and Paul took Silas and 
struck up through Asia Minor, and so two missionary ex- 
peditions instead of one set out from Antioch on account 
of this quarrel. It is pleasant to know, however, that in 


272 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


time Paul and Mark became reconciled and close friends, 
for in his second letter to Timothy Paul bids him to ‘‘pick 
up’’ Mark somewhere between Ephesus and Rome and 
bring him along (II Tim. 4:11). 

Thus this first missionary expedition soon struck rocks, 
both external in the case of Bar-jesus the sorcerer and in- 
ternal in the matter of Mark. Foreign missions are still 
attended with these troubles, and we must not expect 
smooth sailing and easy marching in our Christian work, 
either at home or abroad. 

Paul and Barnabas now passed into Asia Minor and 
stopped first at Antioch in Pisidia, where Paul delivered 
a long sermon in the synagogue (138: 15-41), and when the 
message was rejected by the Jews the missionaries turned 
to the Gentiles with many converts; but when the Jews 
stirred up opposition the missionaries moved on to Ico- 
nium. Similar results followed at this town and then in 
Lystra and Derbe, the farthest point reached. At Lystra 
Paul and Barnabas had a specially exciting experience, the 
people at first worshiping them as gods and then stoning 
Paul and leaving him as dead." 

These four towns were all in the Roman province of 
Galatia, and the churches founded in them on this journey 
were the Galatians to whom Paul wrote his Epistle of this 
name. From Derbe the missionaries retraced their steps 
back through Lystra and Iconium to Antioch in Pisidia, 
‘‘eonfirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them 
to continue in the faith.’’ They then proceeded to Perga 
and ‘‘thence sailed to Antioch,’’ their starting-point, where 
‘they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how 
he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.’’ 

The first missionary journey, attended as it was with 
both external and internal troubles, was successful, prov- 
ing that the gospel was the power of God to the Gentiles, 
and leaving behind a group of churches that played an 
important part in the early history of Christianity. 





1Tt is a striking confirmation of the accuracy of Acts that the 
worship of Mercury and Jupiter as associated gods was a local 
cult in and around Lystra. See Ramsay’s The Bearing of Recent 
Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, pp. 48-49, 
a book abounding in such confirmations. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 273 


2. SeEconD Councm AT JERUSALEM: Must GentitE Con- 
VERTS SUBMIT TO THE Mosaic CEREMONIES? 


Acts 15:1-29 


No sooner had Paul and Barnabas arrived at Antioch 
from their first missionary journey than they were con- 
fronted with a great crisis. ‘‘And certain men which 
came down from Judea taught the brethren, and said, 
Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye 
cannot be saved.’’ This is akin to but not just the same 
question that had been settled at the first council at Jeru- 
salem: There the question was, Shall Gentile converts be 
admitted to the Christian church? Here the question is: 
Shall they be admitted without being circumcised? De- 
feated on the first point, these Judaizers are bringing up 
practically the same issue in another form. 

We must try to put ourselves in the place of these Ju- 
daizers and see the situation from their point of view. 
It seemed to them that the admission of Gentiles into the 
ehurch without circumcision was destructive of the whole 
system of Moses that had been consecrated by more than a 
thousand years of glorious history. This was a terrible 
wrench and shock to their orthodox consciences, and we 
may well appreciate if not sympathize with their sore ex- 
perience. Yet however conscientious they were, they were 
not blameless in their blindness to the breadth and liberty 
of the gospel. Paul calls them ‘‘false brethren unawares 
brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty, that 
they might bring us into bondage’’ (Gal. 2:4). 

Pharisees before conversion, the Pharisaic spirit clung 
to them after conversion. Conservatism in them was erys- 
tallized into fixity and finality. They were narrow rigid 
literalists who could see no room in religion for any dif- 
ference of opinion. And so they went about among the 
brethren as spies and heresy hunters, stirring up dissen- 
sion and subverting souls. We have not yet seen the pass- 
ing of all the people that say that others must believe after 
their manner, or ‘‘ye cannot be saved.’’ 

Paul also at this time and place encountered this Ju- 
daistic propaganda in another quarter. According to the 
order of events in the life of Paul that we have adopted, 


274 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Judaizers had already got in among his Galatian converts, 
following close on his heels through the towns in Galatia 
where he had only recently founded churches, and it was 
at this time in Antioch that he wrote his Epistle to the 
Galatians. ‘‘I marvel,’’ he begins, ‘‘that ye are so soon 
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ 
unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be 
some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of 
Christ’7.(16-7)'. 

Paul proceeds to give a brief sketch of his life and in 
chapter 2 tells of a visit he made to Jerusalem fourteen 
years after his conversion to consult with Peter and other 
‘‘nillars’’ of the church on ‘‘the gospel of the uncireum- 
cision.’’? We take it that this visit does not refer to the 
council we are about to study, of which the account is 
given in Acts 15, but to a previous one, possibly the famine 
relief visit mentioned in Acts 11:27-30, or some other un- 
mentioned visit. It would appear that this may have been 
a preliminary private conference in which the question of 
uncircumcision was practically settled before the public 
council was called. 

The Epistle itself from start to finish is a trumpet blast 
against fastening the Mosiac ceremonies on the Gentile con- 
verts, and into this liberty Paul pours all the invincible 
logic of his mind and passionate heat and vehemence of 
his heart. ‘‘The business of the letter,’’ as John Locke 
long ago saw and said, ‘‘is to dehort and hinder the Gala- 
tians from bringing themselves under the bondage of the 
Mosaical law,’’ and it does this with a vengeance. 

The delegates appointed to attend this second council, 
consisting of Paul and Barnabas and ‘‘certain other of 
them,’’ set off from Antioch and traveled by land three 
hundred miles southward, strengthening and heartening 
the brethren by the way. Arrived at Jerusalem, they were 
received by the church and told their story of God’s doings 
among the Gentiles. They were again confronted with the 
demand of the Pharisiaec Christians that the Gentiles be 
circumcised and the law of Moses be imposed upon them. 

The conference then met and the different views were 
considered. Peter was the first speaker. He reviewed the 
circumstances of his own conversion to the principle of 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 279 


liberty and protested against putting a yoke on the Gen- 
tiles that the Jews themselves were unwilling to bear. 
Peter had wavered on this matter at an earlier day (Gal. 
2:11-12), but he stood true in this decisive hour. 

A great silence fell on the conference as Paul and Bar- 
nabas rose to speak. The exploits of these missionaries had 
made them illustrious and they had come back as generals 
from a great victory. They recited the story of their fa- 
mous campaign and rehearsed the wonders that God had 
wrought among the Gentiles. 

Then James, the brother of Jesus and head of the church 
in Jerusalem, spoke. He was a sympathizer with, if not 
a supporter of, the Judaistic party (Gal. 2:12), and might 
have been expected to oppose Peter and Paul. But he took 
strong ground in favor of Gentile liberty and quoted from 
the prophets to prove his position. The principle of uni- 
versal salvation was in the Old Testament all the while, 
but the Jews did not see it until the light of the gospel fell 
on its pages and brought it out in luminous lines. 

Thus the conference brought these brethren into unex- 
pected agreement and consolidated the church in the prin- 
eiple and the policy of universal salvation with freedom 
from the ceremonial law of Moses. Christianity was again 
saved from Jewish sectarianism and provincialism and 
from schism and was finally loosed from its Judaistie swad- 
dling clothes and set free to start out unimpeded on its 
worldwide march and conquest. It is because of the ep- 
ochal decision made at this council that we are Christians 
today. 

This council illustrates the true method and spirit of 
handling religious differences. ‘‘And the apostles and 
elders came together for to consider of this matter.’’ They 
did not fight it out to the bitter end, but they came to- 
gether for a friendly discussion. They sat down and 
talked it over and reached a decision with unexpected 
unanimity. Conference is far more effective in settling 
differences and disputes than controversy. Controversy 
heats the blood and intensifies differences, but conference 
cools passion and emphasizes points of agreement. In all 
our disputes, especially in religion, we should strive to 
come together to consider the matter in an amicable spirit. 


276 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


The decision of the conference was embodied in a letter 
that has been preserved for us and is one of the most im- 
portant documents in the history of Christianity. It is 
the Magna Charta of our right as Gentiles to share in the 
salvation of Christ without coming under the bondage of 
the Mosaic law. 

The letter consists of an introduction giving the history 
of the matter and a résolution or exhortation stating the 
decision. It first addresses the Gentiles as brethren and 
next repudiates the troublers of the church. Paul and 
Barnabas are strongly commended, thus receiving com- 
plete vindication. Finally, in the name of the Holy Ghost 
it lays upon the Gentiles no unnecessary burden but bids 
them abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from things 
strangled, and from adultery. 

There are thus in the letter some elements of compro- 
mise. While the Gentiles were released from the ceremo- 
nial law of Moses, they were yet to have regard for the 
prejudices and feelings of the Jews and not wantonly 
offend them in their social practices. But there was no 
division of the church, neither party sought to exclude 
the other, but room was found for both, and the unity of 
the church was maintained. The moral law of Moses, how- 
ever, remained as one of the things that cannot be shaken. 


9 Pauw’s Seconp Missionary JOURNEY: From ANTIOCH 
tro Berea. Acts 15:30—17:13 


The brethren returned from Jerusalem to Antioch with 
the decree of the council, ‘‘which when they had read, 
they rejoiced for the consolation.”’ 

Paul and Barnabas now proposed to start out on a second 
missionary tour, but they disagreed over taking Mark 
along, as we have already seen, and so they parted com- 
pany, striking out along different routes, Barnabas taking 
Mark and proceeding over the route of the first journey, 
and Paul taking Silas and traveling by land up through 
Asia Minor. 

Paul revisited the churches at Derbe, Lystra and Ico- 
nium. At Derbe he did a surprising thing in circumcising 
Timothy, a young convert whose mother was a Jewess and 
his father a Greek: it is surprising because the act seems 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 277 


in contradiction to Paul’s whole position on the subject 
of circumcision, against the decrees of the council which 
he was at this very time delivering to these churches and 
especially against the whole teaching of his Epistle to this 
very church at Derbe. Yet Paul gives his reason, which 
was that he wished to avoid giving needless offence to the 
Jews ‘‘in those quarters, for they knew all that his father ~ 
was a Greek.’’ 

Paul was willing to circumcise Timothy who accepted 
the rite voluntarily as an act of expediency, but he was 
unwilling to subject any Gentile to the rite against his 
will, and for this liberty he stoutly stood to the end. Paul 
was ready for compromise when such a policy involved no 
principle, but for the principle itself, he was unyielding. 
This is simply saying that he was a man of good sense and 
knew how to be all things to all men on points of expe- 
diency. Practical life is full of such compromise in which 
principles, without yielding their essential nature and de- 
mands, adapt themselves to wise policies. 

Paul now passed on until he came to Troas, a seaport 
on the Aegean sea separating Asia from Europe, where 
Luke, the author of the Acts, joined the party and steps 
into the narrative (16:10). Here a vision swept down 
upon Paul in the night, in which he heard a man of Mace- 
donia calling, ‘‘Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”’ 
Instantly obeying the heavenly vision as his habit was, 
Paul with his three companions, Silas, Timothy and Luke, 
sailed from Troas across the Aegean sea to Neapolis on the 
European shore. 

In going over this narrow arm of the sea these travelers 
erossed a more momentous Rubicon than Cesar ever saw; 
this voyage of a few hours marks one of the greatest cross- 
ings and epochs of history. In passing from Troas to 
Neapolis the gospel leaped from Asia to Europe and added 
a new continent to the kingdom of Christ. The star of 
spiritual empire here started westward and then kept mov- 
ing onward until it has now encircled the globe. This is 
why we are Christians today. 

The apostle and his companions went on to Philippi 
where the gospel immediately took root and began to grow, 
for it is adapted to every climate and soil. The narrative 


278 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


speaks of the missionaries here tarrying certain days—un- 
important days that are simply huddled together under a 
general designation—and hurries on to a special day that 
shines out upon the page like a star, that never-to-be-for- 
gotten ‘‘Sabbath day’’ when, Luke writes, ‘‘we went forth 
without the gate by a river side, where prayer was wont 
to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women 
which resorted thither.’’ This seems like a rather unprom- 
ising beginning for the gospel in Europe, but no movement 
that begins with women can be counted unpromising. 

The narrative now singles out ‘‘a certain woman’’ whose 
interesting story is told.. Lydia has the conspicuous honor 
of being the first Christian convert in Europe. She was 
‘fa seller of purple,’’ a business woman and shopkeeper 
who was earning her own living. She was a useful worker, 
and this fact shines as a crown on her brow. 

The beautiful steps of her conversion are linked together 
like loops of gold. She went to the place of prayer, she 
heard the gospel, the Lord then inserted a divine link in 
the process and opened her heart, she attended to the things 
that were spoken, she was baptized together with her house- 
hold, and then began to exercise the grace of Christian 
hospitality, and her conversion was complete. It is a quiet 
orderly conversion, perfect and beautiful at every point. 
And so ‘‘the man of Macedonia’’ that Paul heard turned 
out to be a woman, and this was a most significant start, 
for foreign missions to this day usually wins its way first 
among women. ‘‘The Lord giveth the word: the women 
that publish the tidings are a great host’’ (Ps. 68:11). 

The first European convert was a woman and the second 
was a man; the first was a shopkeeper, and the second 
was a jailer: the gospel reaches up and down and through 
society in every direction and is no respecter of persons. 
The first conversion occurred in a quiet prayer meeting on 
a river bank, and the second grew out of a mob and took 
place in a jail amidst the cracking walls and shocks and 
shouts of an earthquake. The gospel works under all 
conditions and tells its story in sanctuary or street and 
knows no difference between the iron-barred windows and 
stone floors of a prison and the richly-stained glass and 
softly carpeted aisles and cushioned seats of a church. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 279 


As Paul and his companions passed to and fro between 
their lodgings and the place of prayer, they were followed 
by a fortune-telling slave girl who kept erying out that 
‘‘these men are the servants of the Most High God.’’ 
Paul took pity on her and released her from demon pos- 
session. But the slave girl belonged to a company of own- 
ers, who, seeing that they were losing the value of their 
property, had Paul and Silas arrested and dragged before 
magistrates, charging that they were ‘‘Jews,’’ which was 
almost a crime in itself, and that they ‘‘do exceedingly 
trouble our city,’’ which was bad for business. 

Paul and Silas were soon in jail and at midnight held 
a prayer meeting when strange music floated through the 
dark damp corridors ‘‘and the prisoners heard them.’’ 
An earthquake at this point suddenly rocked the prison, 
and the Roman jailer, fearing that he would answer with 
his hfe for escaped prisoners, drew his sword to slay him- 
self, when Paul called out in the nick of time, ‘‘Do thy- 
self no harm: for we are all here.’’ 

The jailer cried out, ‘‘ What must I do to be saved ?’’ and 
Paul gave the compact and thrilling answer, ‘‘ Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
house.’’? The jailer believed, faith rushed into fact, and 
he and all his were baptized ‘‘straightway.”’ 

Lydia and the Roman jailer illustrate widely different 
types of conversion, and there are many such types, for 
the wind of the Spirit bloweth as it listeth. 

The Roman magistrates wanted Paul and Silas to leave 
the jail without investigation of the charge, but Paul 
stood on his rights as a Roman citizen, which greatly 
alarmed the magistrates and then they came and besought 
the prisoners to leave the city. Roman citizenship was a 
powerful protection throughout the empire, and more than 
once Paul used it to secure his rights. 

Paul and his company now passed on to Thessalonica, 
where persecution followed them and drove them on to 
Berea, where again they had to be sent away by the breth- 
ren. Persecution was still the great propagandist of the 
gospel, and Paul was not carried through Hurope on a 
flowery bed of ease but traveled a rough and thorny road 
to its fatal end. 


280 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


4, Pavuu at ATHENS AND CoRINTH 
Acts 17:15—18:18. I and II Thessalonians 


Driven out of Berea, Paul, leaving Silas and Timothy 
behind, was conducted by friends down to the sea where 
he set sail for Athens. This city was ‘‘the eye of Greece’”’ 
and the university city and intellectual center of the world, 
glorious in its history and its achievements in literature 
and art, but none of these things interested Paul. The 
city was so full of idols that it was said to be easier to find 
gods than men and this gross idolatry shocked Paul’s 
Hebrew soul. 

He at once began preaching in the synagogue to the 
Jews and then in the market-place to the Greeks. These 
keen-witted people, whose main business was to scent the 
latest news, were quick to discover in Paul a philosopher 
who had something to say. A charge of heresy, ‘‘ a setter 
forth of strange gods,’’ began to be whispered around, and 
he was invited up to the Areopagus where he delivered the 
speech that is recorded in outline in our narrative. 

The introduction, a critical part of every speech, is a 
striking exhibition of oratorical genius. ‘‘Ye men of Ath- 
ens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious.’’ 
The translation of the Authorized Version is wrong and 
turns Paul’s winning compliment into a repellent charge. 
He appealed to the religious nature which is so universal 
and profound, he took his stand upon common ground 
with his hearers that he might lead them up to higher 
truth. 

He then took as a text an inscription he had noted on 
one of their altars, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Paul quoted 
this and thus further won the confidence of his hearers, and 
announced the subject of his sermon, ‘*Whom therefore ye 
ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.’’ By this 
masterly stroke Paul put himself in touch and sympathy 
with his audience and then led them on through his dis- 
course in which he unfolded the revelation of God in na- 
ture and in the human heart. At length he reached the 
revelation of God in Christ culminating in his resurrec- 
tion. 

Paul’s discourse appears incomplete and was probably 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 281 


interrupted at this point. The mention of the resurrection 
of the dead was too much for these volatile Greeks and was 
greeted with a burst of laughter and jeers. Some an- 
swered the missionary with mockery, and others put the 
preacher off with the easy excuse that they would hear 
him again concerning the matter; but they never did. 

Yet Paul’s sermon was not without results. There were 
some converts, including one man of note, Dionysius the 
Areopagite or member of the chief court of the Greeks, 
and a woman, evidently also of some note, Damaris. There 
is no evidence that Paul left Athens discouraged, as some 
have thought, yet he may have felt that the university 
city was not then the best soil in which to sow the gospel. 
But his sermon on Mar’s Hill was not a failure and stands 
out as one of his most conspicuous achievements. After 
all, the gospel Paul preached there that day did in time 
Sweep away all those idols, and the pagan Parthenon be- 
eame a Christian church. 

Fifty miles westward from Athens on a narrow isthmus 
stood Corinth, the second famous city of Greece. Though 
it never rivaled Athens in intellectual development, it al- 
most equalled it in art and surpassed it In commerce and 
wealth. It was a city of magnificent architecture, and its 
Acrocorinthus was crowned with a splendid temple of 
Venus that matched the Parthenon, which was visible fifty 
miles away. 

The city had a bad eminence in vice. Its heterogeneous 
population, containing adventurers from every country, 
and its wealth and luxury made it a hotbed of corruption 
in which every kind of profligacy grew riotously and 
shameless orgies attended its pagan worship. 

Into this pleasure-seeking, sin-saturated city came Paul 
the missionary bringing the gospel of purity and peace, 
and here he abode and labored for a year and a half. Be- 
ing an utter stranger in the city, Paul sought and found 
lodging with a family consisting of Aquila and Priscilla, 
husband and wife, who had been lately expelled from Rome 
by the edict of the Emperor Claudius. As this edict was 
issued early in 52 A. D., we have in this an event that 
gives us a definite date. 

Here Paul labored at his trade of tentmaking to support 


282 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


himself as his avocation and began preaching the gospel as 
his vocation. ‘‘He reasoned in the synagogue every Sab- 
bath and persuaded Jews and Grecks.’’ The usual oppo- 
sition soon developed in the synagogue, and from the 
Jews Paul turned into the adjoining house of Justus where 
he continued to preach. Presently he began to gather con- 
verts, and one was Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue who 
believed with all his house. A church was thus founded 
which became important and figures largely in early church 
history. 

Who were these people that formed this church? Not 
the wealthy merchants and artists and aristocrats of the 
eity, but mostly they were its scum and dregs. In a letter 
written to them afterward (I Cor. 6:9-11) Paul gives a 
slimy catalogue of the classes these members had come out 
of and says, ‘‘Such were some of you, but ye are sancti- 
fied.’’ This was the kind of work the gospel did in these 
heathen hotbeds of vice, and it is still doing the same work 
in great heathen and Christian cities. 

In Corinth Paul seems to have fallen into some great 
fear and despondency, but a cheering promise was 
vouchsafed to him of the Lord: ‘‘Be not afraid, but speak 
and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man 
shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in 
Bhsuciiye a. 

While in Corinth Paul received word from his friends at 
Thessalonica through the arrival of Silas and Timothy 
(Acts 18:5) and heard of their steadfastness, and this 
good news moved him, as we have seen, to write to them 
his First Epistle to the Thessalonians. It contained, how- 
ever, a passage on the coming of the Lord (4: 13-18) which 
created some misunderstanding and alarm among them, to 
correct which Paul hastened to write his Second Epistle 
to assure them that other events would intervene before 
the Lord would appear. From this point on Paul was a 
frequent letter writer and thus kept in touch with his 
churches and friends and greatly widened his field of 
labor and sphere of influence. 

Paul at length left Corinth and, stopping for a brief 
time at Ephesus, he traveled by way of Cesarea up to 
Jerusalem where he went to attend a feast, probably a 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 283 


passover, and having ‘*saluted the church, he went down 
to Antioch,”’ his home base, having been absent on this 
second missionary journey upwards of three years. 


5. Pauwu’s Turrp Missionary JOURNEY 
Acts 18; 23—21:15. JI and II Corinthians. Romans. 


From Antioch Paul started out on his third missionary 
journey and passing through Galatia and strengthening 
the churches there he came to Ephesus. 

Ephesus was the principal city of Asia Minor and was 
the center of commerce, wealth and art. Its crowning 
glory was the famous temple of Diana that was counted one 
of the seven wonders of the world. It rose a mass of pure 
white marble, magnificently columned and carved, and its 
brilhant beauty glittered far out at sea. Hewn out of the 
side of the overhanging mountain was the great theater, 
capable of seating fifty thousand persons, the stone seats 
of which yet remain. 

Under the shadow of this magnificent temple of pagan 
worship Paul began his preaching, first in the synagogue 
and then in the lecture room of Tyrannus, where he taught 
two out of the three years he labored in Ephesus. The 
presence of the Jew missionary was at first unknown to 
the Greek priests and they would have scorned him, but 
his preaching soon began to diminish the throng of wor- 
shipers in the temple, and in time the gospel of the Naza- 
rene did sweep the worship of Diana off the earth. 

Some strolling Jewish exorcists tried their hand at imi- 
tating Paul, who had wrought special miracles of healing 
in the city. Two of them tried their art on a man with an 
evil spirit, but the man, frenzied with his evil possession, 
leaped upon the impostors and beat them so that they fled 
from the house with torn clothing and bloody wounds. 

The result of this disastrous failure was that fear fell 
on many and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 
These penitent believers did not stop with confession but 
‘brought their magical books containing curious arts and 
piled them up in a heap and burnt them in the sight of all. 
Magical books have a great fascination for Jews, and 
Ephesus was noted for its trade in such writings, often 


284 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


mere strips of parchment inscribed with mysterious words 
or sentences which were supposed to have miraculous 
power. The value of the books burnt on this occasion 
amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver or about as 
many dollars today. If all the impure books and gambling 
tools and evil implements in the world were burned up in 
one great heap it would make a tremendous conflagration, 
but it would cleanse the world of much unrighteousness. 
With converts bringing forth such fruits of repentance we 
are not surprised that in Ephesus the word of the Lord 
grew mightily and prevailed. 

The gospel was now making such inroads upon idolatry 
in and around Ephesus that the profitable trade in images 
of the goddess Diana was falling off. The manufacturers 
felt the loss and cast about for the cause. Demetrius was 
the man that hit upon the trouble. He called together 
the workmen and delivered to them an artful speech in 
which he played upon their fears amd their self-interest 
with a masterful hand. He reminded them ‘‘that by this 
craft we have our wealth.’’ Right well did they know this, 
and the man that starts off with this proposition is bound 
to have a hearing and carry his point. Whoever touches 
our business and bread touches our bones and blood. 

The financial argument of Demetrius, appealing to their 
self-interest, would be effectual with the workmen, but 
would it appeal to the public? The wily shrine manufac- 
turer was equal to this side of the case and produced an 
argument that took the whole city by the ears. Not only 
was their craft in danger, but it would also follow ‘‘that 
the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, 
and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia 
and the world worshipeth.’’ Piety and patriotism were 
here both aroused and enlisted in defence of the shrine 
business. Orthodoxy was being undermined and destroyed 
by heresy and a reign of irreligion and atheism was 1m- 
minent. The fall of the temple would also mark the fall 
of the city and its glory would perish from the earth. 

The Ephesian silversmith artfully linked profits, piety 
and patriotism together in defence of his trade, and from 
such a speech we may expect great results. Demetrius is 
a plausible fellow, and his voice is still heard in many a 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 285 


modern meeting, whether it be a manufacturers’ trust, a 
labor union, a political convention, or an ecclesiastical 
assembly. 

The effect of the speech was tremendous and must have 
exceeded the expectations even of Demetrius. There was 
an instant outburst of wrath from the silversmiths. Profits, 
piety and patriotism shouted with one voice, ‘‘Great is 
Diana of the Ephesians!’’ The excitement grew and 
spread and soon the whole city was in an uproar. There 
seems to have been a search made for Paul, but he was not 
to be found. Two of his known companions, however, 
were caught up by the swelling tide of madness and swept 
on its foaming crest into the theater. Higher and higher 
rose the waves of wrathful humanity until the vast theater 
was a surging sea of furious faces. 

When Paul heard of it he was for going at once to the 
help of his friends. His brave spirit could not brook the 
thought of personal safety at the expense of unfaithfulness 
to others. His disciples and powerful friends, however, in- 
tervened to save him from a useless sacrifice. The Jew 
might soon have been torn to pieces in that storm. 

For two hours an, incessant ery was kept up. At length 
the city clerk got the attention of the senseless wearied 
erowd and made a speech marked by singular wisdom and 
justice. He reproved the Ephesians for their small faith 
in their religion, pointed out the legal way of proceeding 
against any wrong doer, and closed by threatening them 
with being called to account to the Romans for their 
disorder. 

This speech brought the Ephesians to their senses and 
the human sea flowed out of the theater and left the stone 
seats empty. Paul hastily left the city. Demetrius seemed 
to have triumphed, and yet he was really conquered. For 
Paul had inserted a wedge in that temple of Diana that in 
time split it down to its deepest foundation stone, and in 
its place rose a powerful Christian church. 

While in Ephesus Paul wrote his First Epistle to the 
Corinthians, in which he endeavored to correct certain 
evils that had arisen in that church, especially a factional 
spirit and moral laxness; and a little later he followed it, 
after he had gone to Macedonia on his way to Corinth, with 


286 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


the Second Epistle in which he expresses his joy at the 
happy turn of affairs of which he had been apprised. 

From Ephesus Paul passed through Macedonia to Cor- 
inth, where he remained three months, and at this point 
he wrote the Epistle to the Romans in anticipation of his 
contemplated visit to that city. Leaving Corinth he passed 
back through Macedonia, stopped at Miletus, the seaport of 
Ephesus, where he bade an affecting farewell to the Ephe- 
sian elders, and sailed on down the Mediterranean coast, 
touching at various points with interesting incidents, and 
landed at Cesarea, where the company ‘‘took up’’ their 
‘‘baggage and went up to Jerusalem.”’ 


6. Paut At JERUSALEM AND CASAREA 
Acts 21: 16—26: 32 


When Paul arrived in Jerusalem he was kindly received 
of the brethren and he hastened to pay his respects to 
James and the elders of the church. A narrative of his 
labors among the Gentiles again drew from the church 
thanksgiving and praise to God. The church seemed to be 
united and harmonious, and yet the old antagonism be- 
tween conservatives and liberals was working beneath the 
surface. 

Some of the elders explained to Paul that many of the 
Jewish Christians were zealous for the Mosaic law and 
were suspicious of his orthodoxy, having heard that he 
rejected Moses altogether; and they proposed that he go to 
the temple with four brethren that had taken a vow, and, 
by thus appearing with them and bearing their expenses, 
disarm these criticisms. Paul, in accordance with his prac- 
tice of being all things to all men in points of expediency 
when no principle was involved, complied with this re- 
quest. 

The next day, while in the temple with these Nazarites, 
he was observed by some Asiatic Jews, probably some of 
those who had opposed him in Ephesus, who immediately 
seized him and began to shout, ‘‘Men of Israel, help!’’ de- 
claring he was the man that everywhere rejected Moses 
and had defiled the temple by bringing Greeks into its 
sacred precincts. 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 287 


Instantly there was a tremendous Oriental uproar. <A 
mob seized Paul and were bent on killing him, when Ro- 
man soldiers intervened and saved him from the popular 
fury. The Roman captain permitted Paul to address the 
crowd from a stairway, when he gave an account of his 
hfe. The next day the captain tock Paul before the Jewish 
council, where Pharisaie fanaticism again broke out against 
the prisoner, and he was taken back by the soldiers into 
the tower of Antonia where the Roman garrison had its 
headquarters. 

The plot of conspiracy grew thick, forty Jews bound 
themselves with an oath that they would not taste food 
until they had killed the hated apostate, but Paul’s nephew 
hearing of the plot warned the captain of the garrison, 
who hurried his prisoner off under heavy guard down to 
Cesarea to the governor. Thus from the historie city 
where he had been educated as a university student and 
had entered upon life as a rising lawyer and had taken 
such a prominent part in persecuting Christians and then 
had returned to it as a foremost Christian apostle, Paul 
departed as a prisoner never to return. Strange must have 
been his memories and reflections on that memorable day. 

Lawyers came down from Jerusalem to conduct the 
prosecution of the case against Paul, but Felix the gov- 
ernor, after a preliminary hearing of the matter, postponed 
the ease on the ground that he would wait until Lysias 
the chief captain would come down, committing the pris- 
oner to a centurion. 

One day this wearied, satiated Roman governor bethought 
himself of the prisoner that had some new notion on the 
subject of religion and it occurred to him that he might 
while away an idle hour, and besides get some money out 
of the Jew as a bribe, by hearing him speak. In a lux- 
urious room in the palace Paul was ushered in before Felix 
and, Drusilla his wife. 

It was a curious situation. Felix was judge and master 
of Paul’s life and with a nod of his head he could have 
sent him to his doom. Yet the prisoner was to preach to 
the judge. How strong was the temptation to curry favor 
with the governor and slip in a word for himself. How 
many a man would have cringed and fallen? But never 


288 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


was Paul more fearless, brave and calm and truer to his 
real Master, Jesus Christ. 

The sermon Paul preached is not recorded, but its three 
divisions or points are given: righteousness, temperance 
and judgment. He uttered not a word concerning himself, 
he wasted no time in a long introduction, but he came right 
to the point and preached straight to the conscience of the 
man before him. He spoke of righteousness to this wicked 
man; of temperance to this sensual, man; and of judgment 
to come to this godless man. It was a pointed and search- 
ing sermon, and such preaching will be heard from. 

Felix trembled under the tremendous indictment, and 
then dismissed the preacher with the excuse that when he 
had a convenient season he would eall him again; but he 
never did. Two years rolled by with Paul still in prison 
when Felix passed out of office and Festus came into his 
place. At this point the Jews tried to have Paul returned 
to Jerusalem, where they had a better chance to convict 
him and Festus asked him if he was willing to go, but Paul 
prevented this procedure by exercising his right as a Ro- | 
man citizen of appealing unto Cesar. ‘‘Hast thou ap- 
pealed unto Cesar?’’ said Festus; ‘‘unto Cesar shalt 
thou go.’’ 

The new governor, having Herod Agrippa, king of a 
petty kingdom lying northeast of Galilee, and his wife 
Bernice (who was also his sister), with him as his guests, 
mentioned to his visitors the ease of the Jewish prisoner 
left on his hands, and Agrippa expressed a desire to hear 
the man himself. The next day the hearing took place be- 
fore the governor, the royal visitors and other men of note, 
attended with great pomp. 

Festus introduced Paul with a brief statement of the 
ease and Agrippa called upon Paul to speak. Paul rose 
and, assuming his characteristic attitude with uplifted 
hand, delivered his defence in which he went over again 
the chief points of his life. At one point in his impas- 
sioned speech Festus interrupted him with the exclamation, 
‘*Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make 
thee mad.’’ 

But Paul was more concerned with the king than with 
the governor and directed his remarks to Agrippa. He 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 289 


appealed to him as a Jew: ‘‘King Agrippa, believest thou 
the prophets? I know that thou believest.’’ The king ant 
swered him to the effect that he evidently thought he was 
about to convert the king ‘‘to be a Christian.’’ Paul, 
however, expressed the passionate wish that the king might 
become altogether such as he himself was, with one noble 
and thrilling exception. As he uttered his prayer he 
lifted his hand and, as the chains with which he was fet- 
tered clanked, added the significant words, ‘‘except these 
bonds.’’ The scene was intensely dramatic and pathetic 
and was enough to move even Romans to tears. The king, 
who had been in a jesting mood, did not care to pursue 
the subject further and rose to retire, followed by the rest 
of the company. 

Paul, however, had made a deep impression, for in dis- 
cussing the case after their retirement Agrippa said unto 
Festus, ‘‘This man might have been set at liberty, if he 
had not appealed unto Cesar.’’ Paul was now on his 
way to Rome, that great world magnet that had long been 
drawing him, though he was going in a way of which he 
had never dreamed. 


7. Stormy VoyvaGE AND SHIPWRECK 
Acts 27-28:16 


We here see Paul in a new situation in which he dis- 
closes unsuspected capacities. The eloquent preacher and 
profound philosopher becomes a successful weather prophet 
and able shipmaster. Put him in any situation and he will 
grasp it with a firm and deft hand. He had a rare com- 
bination of genius and common sense. The man that could 
deliver a masterly address to Athenian philosophers and 
write an immortal prose-poem on love had the shrewd 
judgment and force of will that made him the real cap- 
tain of an Alexandrian corn ship and pushed him into 
leadership everywhere. Religion does not unfit a man for 
business, but knits up all his powers into unity and strength 
and makes him a man among men. 

The appeal to Cesar, which could not be reversed, car- 
ried Paul to Rome, whither he had long been planning to 
go. The voyage is described with such realistic minuteness 


290 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


and vividness as could not have been invented, but must 
be the pen-photograph of an eyewitness. Luke’s history 
attests its trustworthiness all the way through and he 
was aboard this ship and kept something like a diary of 
what happened. We have a narrative of wind and wave, 
ship and storm, freight and sail and rope, that in every 
word is redolent of the sea’s salty breath, yet it is sat- 
urated with religion and all its events reflect spiritual les- 
sons. The sea has ever been a favorite symbol of life, and 
its surface and deeps, placid and smiling or storm-swept 
and foam-flecked, mirror the varied aspects of life’s voyage. 
Paul with other prisoners in charge of a centurion to- 
gether with Luke took passage on a coastal vessel at Ces- 
area and at Myra took an Alexandrine wheat ship bound 
for Rome. The dangerous season of navigation was near 
and at Fairhavens on the southern coast of Crete Paul ad- 
vised the centurion to lay up in that harbor, but the cap- 
tain and the owner of the ship decided to make for the 
next port where they would have more roomy quarters. 
Presently ‘what Paul had expected happened. The ter- 
rible Euroclydon, a sudden violent wind in that region, 
swept down off the steep Cretan mountains, seven thou- 
sand feet high, and, as it tore across the sea, lashing it 
into fury, it seized the boat in its giant fist and threatened 
instantly to crush and sink it. For a fearful run of twenty 
miles the ship drove helplessly before the gale. The storm 
continuing unabated and danger of foundering still threat- 
ening, the crew began to lighten the ship by throwing over- 
board freight and tackling, though saving the precious 
wheat until the last extremity, when it also had to go. 
Thus amidst intense excitement and activity on board 
of that storm-struck foundering vessel, everything was 
done that could be done. Modern seamanship approves of 
every measure that was taken. The captain of the Alex- 
andrine wheat ship made a mistake in venturing out upon 
that treacherous sea at that season, but he handled his ves- 
sel with masterly ability after he was caught in the gale. 
There was one man at least on that ill-fated ship who 
stood tall and strong on its rolling, wave-swept deck. ‘*Paul 
stood forth in the midst of them.’’ What strength of char- 
acter and purpose is indicated in these words! It was the 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 291 


prisoner that thus stood forth in the midst of them and 
they all gathered around him to receive his message; the 
prisoner was now the central figure on that deck; the 
captive was now captain. The strong man will always come 
to his hour and rise to leadership. 

Paul now announced to the panic-stricken crew and pas- 
sengers that he had good news for them. He had received 
a message from God in a vision in which he was assured 
that all on board the ship would be saved, only they must 
first be cast upon an island. This message was a striking 
revelation of divine sovereignty and foreordination. God 
is not going forward blindly and working at haphazard, 
but he has all things laid out and put together in his eter- 
nal plan. This news, instead of releasing them from their 
utmost activity In managing the ship, only encouraged and 
inspired them to do their part all the more urgently. 

With the dawn of the next day they were in sight of land, 
but could not tell where they were. The imperfect instru- 
ments and maps and seamanship of that day did not en- 
able them to do what would be easy in our day. They saw 
a bay with a shelving shore, and their plan was to beach 
the ship. The anchor ropes were cut and the foresail 
hoisted and the ship made for the shore, only to be caught 
in a swirl of the sea and run aground. Though Paul had 
announced that all would be saved, yet they used and had 
to use every device and effort of seamanship to bring the 
ship ashore. 

The soldiers, answerable with their own lives for the 
satiety of the prisoners, now proposed to kill Paul and his 
companions, lest they would swim ashore and escape, but 
the centurion interposed on Paul’s account, and his pres- 
ence saved Paul’s life. Orders were now given for every 
one to make land for himself, and some swam and others 
floated ashore on planks and other things from the ship, 
‘‘and so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to 
land.’’ 

This is the most notable shipwreck of history. Greater 
disasters have happened, but no other tale of the sea has 
been studied so minutely and recounted so many thousands 
of times and has entered so vitally into the life of the world: 
and it draws its fame and significance from the single fact 


292 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


that one of the prisoners on board this wrecked ship was a 
missionary of Jesus Christ. Infinitely the most important 
and precious freight in its cargo was the gospel which is 
the power of God unto salvation, and ships still carry this 
gospel over every sea unto the ends of the earth. 

Paul spent the winter in Malta, where he healed Publius, 
the Roman governor of the island, and wrought other 
miracles, and in the spring resumed the journey and 
finally arrived in Rome. 


8. Pavuut In Rome 


Acts 28: 16-31; Philippians; Ephesians; Colossians; Phile- 
mon; I Timothy; Titus; IJ Timothy 


In Rome at last! The metropolis of the world with its 
two million inhabitants sat on its seven hills and bore the 
proud name of the Eternal City. All roads ran to this 
center, all power radiated from this throne, around this 
hub revolved the mighty rim of the world. From its mar- 
ble Forum, the very rains of which are still an attraction 
to all the world, stretched in every direction miles of pub- 
lic buildings, fashionable residences, splendid avenues, tri- 
umphal arches, magnificent aqueducts, intermingled with 
slums of poverty and vice. 

All the world had been taxed and robbed to enrich this 
city. Conquering Czsars came back from every land 
loaded with the loot of cities they had captured. Marble 
Forum and Nero’s Golden House, columned temples and 
vast bathing establishments and (later) majestic Colos- 
seum, the world had been rifled of its wealth and treasure 
that this immense blossom of architecture and art might 
bloom out upon its seven hills. Art and learning were al- 
ready stealing away from Athens and making this the 
university city of the world. Every ambitious face was 
set towards Rome. This powerful magnet drew the world; 
the Golden Milestone in the center of the Forum was the 
axis of the Roman earth; here all things came to their 
culmination and grand climax. 

Paul had long felt this imperial attraction. Great men 
inevitably gravitate to great cities as affording the proper 
field for their faculties, and the great apostle felt and 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 293 


declared, ‘‘I also must see Rome.’’ At last he had ar- 
rived, not in his own way, but in God’s way; not as a 
free traveler, but as a chained prisoner. 

Paul was in Rome, living in his own hired house, but a 
soldier was always at his side and with every movement 
of his hand his chain clanked. Yet he was incomparably 
the greatest and most important man in that city beside 
whom Nero in his Golden House shrinks into insignificant 
worthlessness. 

His bonds could not bind the truth he Peete but 
fell ‘‘out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.’ 
This man had some subtle and potent chemistry by which 
he could transmute the erudest ore and coarsest slag into 
fine gold. In his prison-house he preached to soldiers and 
thus sent the gospel up into the very palace of Cesar; 
and he wrote letters that went out bearing instruction 
and inspiration and comfort to distant points and passed 
into the Scriptures and are today circulating in the spir- 
itual life-blood of the world. 

After three days in which we may suppose he was 
resting and arranging his temporal affairs Paul was ready 
for work. The prisoner was bound, but the preacher was 
free. The apostle began as usual with the Jews. When 
they were assembled Paul made a brief statement of his 
ease. In every such statement he always stood on and 
started from conservative ground and so he put in the 
forefront of his case the fact that he had ‘‘committed 
nothing against the people, or eustoms of our fathers.’’ 
He addressed them as brethren and spoke to them as a 
loyal Jew and thus set himself before them in a favorable 
light. Yet, notwithstanding this fact, he had been deliv- 
ered a prisoner to the Romans, who, when they had ex- 
amined him, found no cause of death in him and would 
have released him, had not the Jews objected and thus 
forced him to appeal to Cesar. 

The appeal to Caesar, however, bore a suspicious look 
to Jews, implying treachery to his own country, and Paul 
was careful to explain that he had no charge against his 
nation. For this reason he had entreated them to see 
and hear him; and he concluded with the declaration that 
“for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”’ 


294. THE MAKING AND MEANING 


The Jews answered that they had received no letters 
or reports against him, but that they desired to hear him: 
‘‘for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere 
it is spoken against.’’ This shows that already Christianity 
had got into the general news of the world and report 
represented it as something scandalous. It was a ‘‘sect’’ 
of the Jews, which was bad enough, and Christians were 
declared to be ‘‘the enemies of mankind,’’ and were 
charged with worshiping a crucified ass, and drinking 
the blood of slain infants at their religious feast. Rome 
rang with these reports, and several years later when 
Nero, to shield himself, charged them with having set 
fire to the city, the infuriated populace saw Christians 
thrown to wild beasts in the arena and burned as torches 
in Nero’s gardens with shouts of frenzied delight. It cost 
a great price to be a Christian in that day. 

A day was now set for a more extended hearing, and 
at the appointed time the Jews were present in Paul’s 
house in large numbers. The apostle preached an all-day 
sermon in which he expounded the kingdom of God, quot- 
ing Moses, with the result that ‘‘some believed the things 
that were spoken, and some believed not.’’ It is an honest 
record and an honest book that writes this result down. 
When these Jews had finally rejected the gospel Paul pro- 
nounced judgment upon them and turned to the Gentiles, 
‘‘preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things 
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, 
no man forbidding him.’’ 

These closing words in Luke’s biography of Paul are 
true to the great apostle in every syllable and accent, and 
sum up his life from the hour when he fell under the 
spell of Christ’s presence and power near Damascus to 
the hour when he fell under the executioner’s sword at 
Rome. 

Two years he dwelt in his own hired house and received 
all that went in unto him. During this time he was inter- 
ested in and in touch with many of his friends iand 
churches, writing the letters to the Philippians, who greatly 
cheered him by sending him a gift (Phil. 4:18), and 
to the Ephesians and the Colossians and to Philemon, in 
which ‘‘Paul the aged’’ pours out his ripened instruction 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 295 


and tenderest affection and his mystic moods and deepest 
theology. 

The strenuous period of battle, which he opened in the 
Epistle to the Galatians in which he fought for liberty in 
the gospel, has calmed down into the quict and serenity 
of the evening time. He had fought the good fight of 
faith and won it. His thoughts turned to the deeper 
things of the spirit, especially to the cosmic Christ by 
whom ‘‘all things consist’’ (Col. 1:16-17), the immanent 
principle of the universe. These last letters are among 
the most precious portions of the New Testament. 

Luke closes his biography of Paul at this point, and the 
best explanation of this fact is that he wrote his book 
while Paul was still in prison and he knew no more. Tra- 
dition, as we have seen, releases the great apostle from 
this first imprisonment to go out on further missionary 
service, during which he wrote I Timothy and Titus, and 
then brings him back a few years later for final impris- 
onment and death, at which time he wrote II Timothy, 
the last letter we have from his hand. 

This letter is especially tender and earnest and rings 
with a victorious note as the grand old veteran declares, 
‘‘T have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me 
a erown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but 
unto all them also that love his appearing.’’ How fitting 
and eloquent are these final words of Paul. 

Yet Paul the aged has not lost interest in life. Affec- 
tion is running deep in his soul and in his loneliness he 
yearns for the fellowship and love of his closest friends. 
Pathetically he records the fact that ‘‘only Luke is with 
me,’’ and he bids Timothy to ‘‘Take Mark, and bring him 
with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry,’’ a 
pleasant record as showing that the wound of the former 
separation was healed. He does not think he is done with 
service, for he wants Timothy to bring ‘‘the cloke I left 
at Troas with Carpus,’’ and also ‘‘the books, but especially 
the parchments.’’ Busy student and scholar and worker 
he was to the last, and how we would prize them if we 
could recover some of those books and parchments! 


296 THE MAKING AND MEANING 


Some of the old fire also flashes out of him, for he re- 
members that ‘‘Demas hath forsaken me, having loved 
this present world,’’ and he pays his respects to ‘‘ Alex- 
ander the coppersmith,’’ declaring that ‘‘he did me much 
evil’’ or ‘‘has done me a lot of harm’’: ‘‘the Lord reward 
him according to his works.’’ These personal notes show 
how human he was to the last. 

The Second Epistle to Timothy was the last writing 
from Paul’s pen. He could calmly write, ‘‘I am now 
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand.’’ The swift stroke of an executioner’s sword, prob- 
ably in the Neronian persecution of 64 A. D. and cer- 
tainly before the death of Nero in 68 A. D., ended his life, 
his work as far as inspired history records it is finished, 
and the greatest man in the New Testament and the great- 
est leader since Moses passes from our view. But of 
hardly any other human being is it so grandly true that 
‘‘he being dead yet speaketh.’’ 


We have concluded our study of the Making and Mean- 
ing of the New Testament: Its Background, Books and 
Biographies; its principal facts and features, cities and 
centers, program and personalities, origins and expansion 
of the gospel as traced in its pages, its truth and teach- 
ing and application for us, its words that are immortal 
spirit and life, its imperishable beauty and its transcen- 
dent blessings; and central and supreme in it as its chief 
value and vitality and glory its Master and Lord in whom 
all its rays converge and concenter as the express image 
and brightness of God and from whom they all issue 
as the Light of the World. 

The study has surely caused the book to grow upon 
our understanding and appreciation until we realize it 
is beyond rival the greatest book in the world, incompar- 
ably the supreme literary treasure of the race. No one 
can afford to be ignorant of it even as a means of educa- 
tion and culture. In our translation it is the noblest 
literary monument in the English language. ‘‘ Western 
civilization,’’ says William Lyon Phelps, Professor of Eng- 
lish Language in Yale University, ‘‘is founded upon the 
Bible; our ideas, our wisdom, our philosophy, our liter- 


OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 297 


ature, our art, our ideals, come more from the Bible than 
from all other books put together.”’ 

This is especially true of the New Testament. Its his- 
tory and varied literature in Gospels and Acts and Epis- 
tles and panoramic Apocalypse, its stories and parables 
and prose-poems, its thrilling scenes and dramatic mo- 
ments, its picturesque views and uplifting visions, its 
lucid streams and profound deeps, its vitalizing breath and 
victorious spirit, its great messages of salvation and hope, 
and withal the simplicity and charm and music and majesty 
of its style make it an education to the mind, culture to 
the heart, bread to the soul and victory to the spirit. 

It is these contents and characteristics of the New Testa- 
ment that prove it to be ‘‘inspired of God and profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.’’ The stu- 
dents that read, mark and assimilate this book will find 
that it will strengthen and enrich their souls and enable 
them to live a great life that is hid with Christ in God. 


Dear Lord and Father of mankind, 
Forgive our foolish ways; 

Reclothe us in our rightful mind, 

In purer lives thy service find, 
In deeper reverence, praise. 


In simple trust like theirs who heard, 
Beside the Syrian sea, 
The gracious calling of the Lord, 
Let us, like them, without a word 
Rise up and follow thee. 
—Whittier. 














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INDEX OF SCRIPTURE 








PAGE PAGE 
TETAS, AAPA Reg ENR Ores co iar ipl eee Atte tay tty lie foe eae ce 63 
Me (9 oki ehe ose 53S te DP IU NTALEMEL hs l-OoMes vay 6 cls coke 184 
PRs Aue CRN Ge A) eles Re a LON Tae VL atte bey OMe uche lire ee ae 104 
BOS EO Oe AGH, < ooa ais & ctasle <a elohe Pome Neato eet or re i eee 190 
1 EES MSELATS 55 GPR Ot era DO mee MAT ail 5-25. ee ee ee 192 
DEER LOUD 6. ven lg sine eo a fies LO MEP NEALE MAL cleo eg en it eine sion 195 
LUCE TS Fea ere Pm atts LOC Lo Oli) poenrce wae 198 
ich 2 BSS 0 See arene AGS Matt op ps b<Oy ns ees eae 201 
Peeling ata ees to te 6 es POON ATH Sh] 40 oe tee be bee 208 
UPD REE Bie aR a ing eee Oem Matty 2utle bl ia. acct pete ae 212 
Pe ELSE Soles nc ah ote ai <0 LOM OLS Llaeee 1G eae eee 20 
LES, (oho Bh ene (Ome ALL econesLl ocean ek me Lis 
Pee BL OM AN aie As ea oia e's ESOS TRVEA Li 2 Gale nea tinh ntee mee 208 
COCR, Oa At SSR RE oie Ca PSN ALE ar clivoOsb. son tha en Ha lf 
eee We iets Bae ease Coxe Matt. 2636-46-72. beter sen eee PPA 
ere a es Wy es ie OIE DET gO Ola GOL oie ae on oe 
LS 209 O05 AS ae ae Eee Matt 27 te 2 oGie we cio biter teonie rt, 
1" Day 0 I Re ae ere DNL a Ulan eS LO 2a ee cee seeee eae Zot 
WME DPM ick hy kal uiea/o/ dee he aie os Zo Mati 25215220). dete eae 63 
LU ery tie sh in Da GR RE ab oneen LS Lear ee LS aig de ee kee ee 131 
ICT Re GA a DAN ee ae AO ere a rice be Ok LW ies eee a eee too 
EAM Lat Li bscle pielecle ete et ez 1668 WY BV eel Ee ea ae bas 134 
Aika ee Chey b DR ae Lote Marky elas jie ee ee Nae 152 
Ue an Were see eek ders nine MEAT Bed 6-20 eee tent tee 156 
Te Eee re Le recs ek lag chet AGS MATE © L345) 00 rc ene ts eee 162 
TWD oe 22 Oe MO CSM a rico 22 ters, 2 suet tere ee 63 
AP EEA heey od ass Gisvets 0 a'h 4 GMA AER el a1 me aro ante eae e 164 
NLT tt ME I ee T6206 tie rig 2 BA ar ae ate oe 158 
Met UE oe alse aia 's wha \ ciel sa alls oe rae ta B64 NG Wid Sapa hey eg ech OD SSN Le As ee te 63 
SIS EPO aoe A aa mera AO am NEA Te e711 Oke epee eye nae 169 
Ee Lad De ss hes ele he Rye Bh Chl er” Be GY Oe Oe ak Pe ae a. 184 
TOUTE Ria et WY NaS 0 ag a Gama rik 4 iid Tier ak cok eee 187 
DU PWIA GOTT Lasts hc tete se Me, os A PiGn POT Kenya d oe es cen 67 
BNE RLSM itsisre ed chej eo d Wis ws DoS ATE OS ie eta Eee ee 129 
2 WES Soa Se Bi Si TS Mark? 6214-39 Nig reese 190 
PRE cess (a oie bald 8 a 1S7ablark 6330-46 ee eee 192 
VED Liem eRe eS Mace ghee ga) sis oslo 1640 Mark tel eo Se te eon ee eee 195 
BUEN GH DO Merce UL oa) c %e iets de os 6 GOeSENArICN 7 close oc oe See nee ee give 
NEE a ga Ce BE Oe 169 eMarki see 7 -BOi yo. te aa anee 198 
DART eee LO ees or e's Stale 180. ark 9-2-1 3im, ona ee ee 201 


299 


300 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE 


PAGE 
Maric wi ea Get Zama sictirst ore 208 
Hus eh hy Be RS ae Be Hl 212 
BS, eat ogh  Sicbs O00 ie Eas B 
EATER ALS Bena nue cers tse wee ays 
Maras S24 2h Ge ee ae 
Mark 14°:538—15:20 ....:.... 223 
MES Pla tree Le a, eee a Dalit § 
PG eae Me tede ces: sei alee 70-72 
LD Bits yn Ped 58 4S a a ea ae Ped 118 
PETE Lge 084 el Val hs EO ae HE 119 
PSUR ORC Uae AU Ne ee Soe ete te eae 121 
TUK ORE ROO. vag cepa ek aaa 
DAR GE OU AScU be steel tata okie hae eal 
PUR GUOUA EO Whe von lak moet ~. 49 
POUL Gudea Leet gerry ted aie) ale oe 5 
MOKED DEPT OR a sees et hele aie ah dys 
Tykes oe Las os ae Moe a ve 134 
NST YS Ch5.hes Wai nle sek ee i Gent 49 
PA keyA 216-30 Gait ee ee: 153 
Tiers e228 vie eae tees rieaeay ages. a 70 
TUK OCS SSL ee a 158 
Pee BBS it eA ae ey en 70 
Truke 4042-44 ee eae ae 162 
BCH) t= bce vege area inna at 156 
PSU KOU: el Zincimrso e eee eae eee eae 70 
BUG eh Te26. eit ae he ee 164 
Make: Gt 12219 a ne ese a 169 
LUKE: GEZO-20 icc wee eee 172 
Tike, 620649 toners pase 49 
Lime y Fels TO ely ces eae 178 
Leb Utes Diy oat DART e ORR Tih Mase ae 70 
AUK ONT tL S-Ool eles s aeer ete ee 180 
Lukes 835-18) era Sah 184. 
PA KENS 22-20 ck telecine erent 187 
HIKE LO tT Oli ck hee ee 190 
PACE OTOL Tc ic hover eteakere 192 
POUR OPO SURO oe tcc ketene 198 
AUK OL Oe ZS-SB oy oe eee eee ee 201 
Parke Ocoee wah eee eee 70 
Luke 9:51—18:14 ......... ree 
TAK SD SOA ie Oates ate ean tee 254 
PUB OU LO FLEAS ee ied geet 208 
ke 110 (S842 ee 208 
Luke 11-1328 Wakes 50 
Pak evel Tas Gee tree antes 208 
Tkevls 18-235). ween eee 208 
Teter 1G 2U SLO ici ae are 208 
Trike td 20-44 ie eee ae 212 
Dah gate a4 AE Tak AUR aby 8 217 
Taker 22 730-46 a ain vot 


PAGE 
Luke. 22 54-23 25 “Se ee pate} 
Luke 23 :26-49 >. 5 cn. cme oat 
Luke’ 24::50-53 fo. he eee 235 
JOHN 1-18) ee eee 74 
od OL Tr Eee 2a Ul k. teky eae 11 
JOH Lebo Le cits eee 187 
JON 2ST ee eee 141 
WOH 2 13". eee oe ee 59 
JOHN! 2213+22 ot eee 143 
SOORAG LGV as sheen eee 75, 148 
Jon S212 OU ee 146 
John /4:4-26 w/o. eae ee 148 
JOH 4 220 a ee 250 
JON 4224 i ee 75 
John 4 246-54 2 eae 153 
J OWN 20 Ae soe ee 59 
John’ 5 47. 8... 167 
John 621-15 i. eee 192 
Jonn: 6 4. UA eee 59 
JOR O14 oe 205 
Jonn jt 31-46" 2... eee 208 
JOHN VIZ 1] Moen Lae eee 59 
John 12 s1-11 24). Hose ee 208 
sobn 123207.) Cae Za 
SOUT 12 20-22) 0 i eee 24 
John) 12:20:86 4.0 cee 215 
Jonn 13 21-80). 22 eee 217 
Jonbn 14:26 4. 25..5.. Soe 78 
John 16:12-15: .).. 2 eee pi | 
JOON L831 ee 228 
John 18 :12—19 :16 30. ee 225 
Jonn 19 116-87) <4. a ee ee 227 
John 20 21 2 ee eee te 
JOHM 20S) -. 3.1.5.4 ace 74 
Jon 21:24... ..4 Ree 73 
Acts!) 131) ..t. Cee eee 70 
Acts: 1-2. 254454 See 77 
Acts 158) oo. ck 5 eee 77 
Acts 271-470 oc), eee 245 
Acts 4:20 050... a 248 
Acts (5329 00 0) Se eee 248 
Acts 6100s 66. i eee 24 
Acts 6—Te ie. oes Fee 248 
Wets' 6216441102. 4 aoe 93 
ACTS 881-25 6 62.8 eee Bas 
Acts: 0:31:22 2544 Cee 257 
Acts 951-33 8). ieee 256 
Acts 9 2080.0. 24 
Acts 9426-27 07) ab eee 268 
Acts (1023-48 4s hot a ee 260 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE 


PAGE 
JCS RSE Wl Rees Bea bE ee eee alee 263 
Pe OTM BOG SS ea oa an 265 
PCS tO. 1 ols + oo d.6 e'e 83, 274 
Bem SO ais ae See Glin eid w etans 87 
aN ieee mass Saat bees 66 
PRC R GLA ia wn ovis ele oS 269 
UE PAI ee a 8s a ag (ee 
ALO Se OO i ects sc es eked ees Zale 
PPE LOLOL RG eroiciene ds Us 87, 274 
ON Chath 0 es Uy i Is Se 276 
Bh SRS OCT SG lag oe ee aed A 87 
JANOS I IL ise De eae a OOREZTE 
RSM Chel Ja Les ir atatin i gate ae Gets 69 
PEPER CEL AC Che, ii ele evorarens 89 
PES LEE Lauer ea elie td's ee 91 
Acts 17 :15—18:18 ......... 280 
Bly eal e oe sere! vb 91, 282 
A CS ha 2s 6 os 283 
AGG Sg OE Re 2 EO ea 88 
J AESIEST Fe STS Maa aa 69 
Eee 28 a od en 69 
Bets lO—26:°32. 0. eke. ck. 286 
NC 2 AN A a ee 256, 257 
POMS ais civ atl eons lea ae ee 19 
Jie 92 0 a eee BOG, 206 
Acts 27—28:16 ........ 69, 289 
iyi) Pts Nd § 255 8 Pa aga ens en Ie 292 
UC eM a atone co bie ar wiwtestiore 26 
PN MeN haere es chee iagn atone sicte oo 84 
OMS Lee tren dics ace dec at 
SERS alin a ethers bie ais orgs acd wane 85 
MMC O Os LLGac eres Sele eee’ o's 282 
JO: COS ge Be 2s 2 Ga 2a WG 
LE LOC 26 Giles a Bs sn a 83 
MECN Cote sic te ak 33s e acc tals 232 
NM OberCOmt oh Pe) as cin Sess sore ba > 58 
Ree O ee tae ilies «ae a eas 230 
VEL Oya iy 2A UA 2 near Be 85 
OC WOR eae 85 
TONY TO Orr ipl! sc lcs ee ee 86 
MEY al bo er ee a eo oe ee 97 
RTGS GO ISR UT 269 
SCTE TTB CMW RS on a 86 
NTN 9) ge a ee 86 
Oe fe Di OS 274 
OES A GNIMGRIN Des to Aa 87 
ET 7G ot 1 RI 87 
CSIR STS eA ots (OD Oe aa 99 
Ce UL OY Se ong ge ea a a Bae 
Mee UME ile. cp oa case's « 83 


301 

PAGF 
CRA ee Leah d ft geiy eee 87 
EGS Nh ae Ns ay Sana Bie EDN at 2g 
SY Po Gti BAR a gare 9 ee nena be 
PU hoe OP ns ste che ae Aaron t 292 
PLUTO See ar less aiata yore ae 88 
iD Roch MCW eet b le sls o f8'S os bk whate 88 
1 CW a Biss ps BS lg ae a 88 
ESOS Citas kar wets, cals eas Bice haleee 90 
ebay diy aoe Aces Rae RE 292 
Ee Loe ae heehee! ghee 89 
Pye open a kee eo ree oa 89 
PH 22 -OU Tela ces oreo ee 89 
ITE SS Litas eta apes Cae 294 
bE CUM Beg: Coplay etdel nae ean dk (ae ae A 89 
LOG) Woks ESE Maa ANA Gch ti), SMR Rt, 292 
Colwell Os 19 icone ey Ben ee) 90 
CG bie teed Oe AG ae ce eee Wry NR ae 295 
AOL arta Se oe ate reese ee 90 
COL AEONG Ie cis eatercuae ee heme 90 
COPA 2c LO Tare tiene oe eae eee 90 
ORCS Cad Tce Ben cate wc nas 90 
Bo) Bele abd OA PO ea RCN oly 90 
COTM G 2 LOE Ts Wait he en, omar oe 90 
Colma STi ion a ar, Sieh ae 90 
COTS a ae ee eine eee eRe 90 
sa) pares Miah Gh ee ee ag ao Wr eh arial 
L030) Pica: Shad £2 Wes Se ROA vee are a ele hea Rk 69 
Dap ness) 4h nye leo hae ek 280 
PDD OSsite ke: Sie tae Cie ee Nae 91 
TL Phessi4 18-180 ee! GL 282 
1D Phess 1-3 bn aie oes 280 
Tis’Thessy) 271-12) or vy 91 
Tie EDESS Sor 1 Oe ue eee ae 130 
sid hy bed eke Ree a iain Rag Sa ies 292 
UBD O GRU Rs Leen rise Au be Ne pl « 92 
PS LINS Lede ee tS eae 92 
hOGA Boh sa Baie AES ates ae APR ae ae en 92 
PENT Tids- Eye AUUE inc y cies ae aie 92 
gNCGA By sic pond EE” SPM Se ee 292 
LSA Oe bh ete as Hes OT ere nian) 5 93 
th DUE Oy he a Wiker Ye Wao Os me et R 93 
Pin 840-1 pave et ace 93 
MG Od Bat wn Ger, al Me None eae Cah 69 
PICU Lee ete aes a 292 
Philemonvi 41-25 ne eee 292 
Tied sid ya aee han ates 100 
HeDANl: Dee. cai ie eee 240 
OD 2 tBe Ae tee nse Wee eee 99 
PHebiclO Sl Ow bot eal cree 100 


INDEX OF SCRIPTURE 


BEE m Nae aes: al ot 200 dI Pet. 3:15-16 


rt a hl Moe Site aa atmo {OZ Vet AION is ie, a eee 
PANTIE es Serctig’ vac ghee LOS 2 URE OHI SE aie cerccrt ae 
RMR Tins skit ice whe 1038 LJ ODT ES se oes ee 
a AR aie rt 102° 1 Jonn v4 200 eee 
Re i Wes tomar Se 102" Jude 234-165 26 ee ee 
de ot Neer RU CALS 104.) Jade 39) Go es eo eee 
Rete Wie ees hae ck 10387 ) Saudevl ly vse ose eee 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


Aaron, 194. 

Acquila, 281 

Acrocorinthus, The, 281. 

Acts, The, date of, 54; author- 
ship of, 77; purpose and char- 
acteristics, 77-79; omissions 
in, 79-80; continuation of the 
Gospels, 243-244; accuracy of, 
ia. 

Aeschylus, 22. 

Alexander, the coppersmith, 296. 

Alexander, the Great, 8, 28. 

Alexandria, 26, 266. 

Amos, 8. 

Andrew, the disciple, called to 
follow Jesus, 188; 156, 194, 
21D; 

Annas, 228. 

Ananias, 249. 

Antioch, the gospel in, 265-268, 
PIO R212, 2138, 214, 216, 283: 

Antioch, in Pisidia, 272. 

Antiochus, Epiphanes, 105. 

Antonia, Tower of, 287. 

Apocalypses, Jewish books, 20- 
21; in the Bible, 105. 

Arabia, 259. 

Army, The Salvation, 267. 

Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 36. 

Ascension, of Jesus, 236-240. 

Assyrians, 18. 

Athens, 91, 280-281. 

Augustine, 108. 


Background, of the New Testa- 


ment, Jewish, 1-21; Greek, 
22-28; Roman, 29-36. 
Babylon, VIII, 2, 8. 
Baptism, of Jesus, 133-134; 


meaning of the ordinance, 
133. 


303 


Bar-jesus, sorcerer, 271. 

Barnabas, at Antioch, 267-268; 
with Paul on first journey, 
269-272; at Second Council in 
Jerusalem, 273-276; goes with 
Mark on missionary journey, 
276. 

Barnabas, Epistle of, 107. 

Bartimaeus, 208, 

Beatitudes, The, 172-175. 

Bede, The Venerable, 110. 

Beethoven, 124. 

Berea, 91, 279-280. 

Bernice, wife of Agrippa, 288. 

Bethany, 208, 212, 217, 237. 

Bethesda, pool of, 167. 

Bethlehem, 5; Jesus born at, 
120-121. 

Bible, greatest book in the 
world, VIII; canon of, 107- 
108; Roman Catholic, 108, 
110; translations of, 109-111; 
a book of principles, 238. 

Birth, virgin, of Jesus, 119-120. 


Cesar, Augustus, 21, 120, 

Cesar, Julius, 115, 277. 

Ceesarea, 5; Peter at, 260-261; 
Paul at, 287-289, 290. 

Ceesarea, Philippi, 198-201. 

Caiaphas, 223. 

Calvary, 201, 227. 

Cana, of Galilee, miracle at, 
141-143; nobleman’s son heal- 
ed, 1538. 

Canon, of the New Testament, 
43, 107-108; of the Old Testa- 
ment, 108. 

Capernaum, 5; headquarters of 
Jesus, 156; a busy day in, 
158-161. 


304 


Carlyle, quoted, 130, 160. 

Caro, Cardinal, 109. 

Carpenter, Jesus the, 129-130. 

Carpus, 295. 

Carthage, Synod of, 108. 

Christ, Jesus, outline of events 
of life of, 59-61; and Chris- 
tendom, 116; life of, 117-240; 


the thirty ‘silent years,’ 117- 


130; genealogy of, 117-118; his 
humanity, 118; virgin birth 
of, 119-120; birth in Bethle- 
hem, 120-121; angels and 
shepherds at his birth, 121- 
123; worshiping Wise Men, 
123-125; childhood and _ boy- 
hood, 125-129; the carpenter, 
129-130; baptism of, 183-134; 
temptation of, 184-1387; start- 
ing his kingdom, 187-141; 
first miracle, 141-148; _ first 
cleansing of the temple, 148- 
146; interview with Nico- 
demus, 146-148; conversation 
with woman of Samaria, 148- 
150; preaches at Nazareth, 
153-156; headquarters at Ca- 
pernaum, 156-158; a busy day 
in Capernaum, 158-161; mis- 
sionary tour through Galilee, 
162-164; strange things in Ca- 
pernaum, 164-166; at pool of 
Bethesda, 167-169; choosing 
and mission of his twelve 
disciples, 169-172; the Ser- 
mon on the Mount, 172-178; 
the Lord’s Prayer, 175-178; 
heals a centurion’s servants, 
178-180; how he dealt with 


John’s doubt, 180-184; his 
parables, 184-187; stills a 
storm on Galilee, 187-189; 


feeding the five thousand, 192- 
195; breaks with the Phari- 
sees, 195-198; with the disci- 
ples at Cwesarea Philippi, 198- 
201; his transfiguration, 201- 
204; healing the man born 
blind, 205-208; at the home of 
Martha and Mary, 208-210; 
at Simon’s table, 210-211; the 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


triumphal entry, 212-214; cer- 
tain Greeks, 215-217; institu- 
tion of the Lord’s Supper, 217- 
220; in Gethsemane, 221-223; 
the trial, 223-226; the cruci- 
fixion, 227-230; the resurrec- 
tion, 230-233; his Great Com- 
mission, 233-236; his ascen- 
sion, 236-240; contrasted with 
Paul, 256. 

Christian, the name first given 
at Antioch, 268. 

Christianity, an historical reli- 
gion, 41; struggle for free- 
dom from Judaism, 82, 87-88, 
100-101, 244, 250-251, 253, 2638- 


265, 2738-276; a rational 
religion, 188; universal re- 
ligion, 235; starts on )1ts 


world-wide march, 248-244; a 
“sect” in the Roman Empire, 
294, 

Chronology, of the Gospels, 53- 
54; of the birth and life of 
Jesus, 59; of Paul’s life and 
letters, 83-84. 

Church, The, in the teaching of 
Jesus, 152; the means ef spir- 
itual life, 159; it may be 
wrong, 166; the Rock on which 
it is built, 199, 200; in Jeru- 
salem, 245-248, 286; struggle 
ee Judaism, 263-265, 273- 

76. 

Cicero, quoted, 24; 187. 

Claudius, Emperor, 281. 

Clement, of Rome, Second Epis- 
tle of, 107. 

Codex, Sinaiticus, 108-109, 

Colosse, 90, 94. 

Colosseum, The, 29-30, 292. 

Colossians, Epistle to, 80, 84, 
date, occasion and contents, 
90, 96, 294, 295. 

Columbus, 124. 

Communism, of early church in 
Jerusalem, 247-248. 

Controversy, place of, in the 
church, 265, 275. 

Conversion, nature of, 182, 152, 
247; of Paul, 257-260; of Lye 


INDEX OF 


gia: 273; 
jailer, 279. 

Copernicus, 27. 

Corinth, 91, 281-282. 

Corinthians, I and II Epistles 
to, 80, 84, dates, occasions and 
contents, 85-86; 285-286. 

Cornelius, and Peter, 260-262. 

Council, First at Jerusalem, 263- 
265; Second at Jerusalem, 87, 
278-276. 

Coverdale, 110. 

Crete, 94, 290. 

Crispus, 282. 

Cross, The, first revealed, 200; 
the principle of, 217; on Cal- 
vary, 227-230; meaning of, 
230. 

Crucifixion, of, Jesus, 227-230. 

Crusades, 8. 

Cyprus, 266, 267, 270. 

Cyrene, 266. 


of the Philippian 


Damaris, 281. 

Damascus, 258, 259. 

Daniel, Book of, 105. 

Daphne, grove of, 266, 

David, 194. 

Deacons, appointed, 249. 

Decapolis, 23, 198. 

Dedication, feast of, 17. 

Deissmann, Adolf, 26. 

Demas, 296. 

Demetrius, Ephesian 
smith, 284-285. 

Demosthenes, 22, 115. 

‘Derbe, 272, 276. 

Diana, worship of, at Ephesus, 
283-286. 

Diatessaron, Tatian’s, 108, 

Didache, of the Twelve Apostles, 
107. 

Dionysius, 281. 

Drusilla, wife of Felix, 287. 

Domitian, Emperor, 105. 

Doubt, how to treat religious, 
180-184. , 


silver- 


Ecclesiastes, Book of, 108. 
Ecclesiastics, rarely the first to 
receive new truth, 121-122; 


SUBJECTS 305 


often have been misguided, 
166. 

Heypt,.2, 7, 125. 

Hlijah, 8, 190; at the transfigu- 
ration, 202. 

Elisha, 8. 

Elizabeth, 119, 

Emmaus, 231. 

Empire, Roman, division of, 8, 
extent of, 30-81; its pagan re- 
ligions, 31-33; its despair, 36; 
Christianity in, 243-244, 

Enoch, Book of, 105. 

Entry, The triumphal, 212-214, 

EHpaphroditus, 89. 

Ephesians, Epistle to, 80; date, 
occasions and contents, 88- 
89; 294. 

Ephesus, 88, 282, 283-286. 

Epistles, Catholic, 99-105. 

Epistles, Paul’s, 80-98; cireum- 
stances, characteristics and 
contents of, 81-95; review of, 
95-98 ; progression of ideas in, 
96-97, 

Hsdraelon, plain of, 4, 126. 

Essenes, Jewish religious party, 
19, 

Hsther, Book of, 108. 

Huripides, 22. 

Euroclydon, The, 290. 

Kusebius, 62, quoted, 63. 

Ezra, 8 


Fairhavens, 290. 

Farrar, EF. W., quoted, 79. 

Feasts, Jewish, 17-18; the four 
visits of Jesus to, 59. 

Felix, governor of Judea, 287- 
288, 

Festus, successor of Felix, 288. 

Fiske, John, quoted, 248. 

Forum, The Roman, 292, 


Galatia, 272, 283. 

Galatians, Epistle to, 80, 84; 
date, occasion and contents, 
86-88, 96, 259, 272, 274, 295. 

Galilee, district of, 15. 

Galilee, Lake, 4, 5, 126; fishing 


306 


on, 157-158; a storm on, 187- 
189. 

Genius, the Hebrew, 9-11; the 
Greek, 22-28; the Roman, 30- 
31. 

Gentiles, their admission to the 
Christian church, 263-265; 
273-276. 

Gethsemane, 221-223. 

Gnosticism, 93. 

Gods, mythological, 31-82. 

Golgotha, 227. 

Gospels, The Four, general 
characteristics of, 44-60; his- 
toricity of, 44-47; interrela- 
tion of, 47-49; can they be 
harmonized, 50-538; dates of, 
538-54; why four? 55-56; their 
different points of view, 55- 
56; miracles in, 56-59. 

Government, church develop- 
ment of, 249. 

Greece, VIII. 

Greeks, the people, 22; their ge- 
nius, 23; spread of their civ- 
ilization, 23-24; their  lan- 
guage, 24; certain ones desir- 
ing to see Jesus, 215-217. 


Harnack, on date of the Acts, 
54; on dates in the life of 
Paul, 83. 

Headlam, Arthur C., quoted, 46- 
47. 

Hebrews, Epistle to, 98, date, 
authorship, purpose and con- 
tents, 100-101, 108. 

Hermas, Shepherd of, 107, 

Hermon, Mount, 4, 201. 

Herod, Agrippa, 288-289. 

Herod, Antipas, 14; 190-192. 

Herod, the Great, 14, 59. 

Herod, Archelaus, 14, 125. 

Herod, Philip, 14, 190. 

Herodians, Jewish party, 20. 

Herodias, wife of Herod Anti- 
pas, 190-192. 

Herodotus, 78. 

Historicity, of the Gospels, 44- 
47; of miracles, 56-59; of the 
Acts, 272, 290. 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


Horner, Francis, 202, 

Hospital, The, an annex of the 
church, 171. 

Hugo, Victor, quoted, 202. 


Iconium, 272, 276. 
Immortality, 203. 
Irenaeus, quoted, 69, 73. 
Isaiah, 8. 


James, brother of the Lord, 87, 
at the Second Council in Je- 
rusalem, 275; author of the 
Epistle, 101-102. 

James, the disciple, called to 
follow Jesus, 156; at the 
transfiguration, 201; 221; 2381. 

James, Epistle of, 99, author- 
ship, purpose and contents, 
101-102, 108. 

Jeremiah, 8. 

Jerusalem, capital of Judea, 15; 
condition in time of Christ, 
143-144; university city, 170; 
why Jesus wept over it, 212- 
214; First Christian Council 
at, 268-265, 

Jesus, See Christ. 

Jews, history of, 6-8; racial 
characteristics, 8-9; religious 
nature of, 9-11; worship and 
life of, in time of Christ, 15- 
19. 

Job, Book of, 206. 

John, the Baptist, announce- 
ment of his birth, 119; preach- 
ing at the Jordan, 131-133; 
baptizes Jesus, 133-134 ; 
thrown into prison, 148; his 
doubt about Jesus, 180-184; 
death of, 190-192. 

John, the disciple, called to fol- 
low Jesus, 138, 156; at the 
transfiguration, 201; 221; 
231; on the morning of the 
resurrection, 231; at Sama- 
ria, 255. 

John, Gospel of, relation to the 
other Gospels, 47; authorship 
of, 73-74; purpose and char- 


INDEX OF 


acteristics of, 74-75; contents 
of, 75-76. 

John, I, If and III, Epistles of 
99, authorship and contents, 
103-104, 108. 

Joppa, 5, 260. 

Jordan, The, 4; 131. 

Joseph, of Arimathea, 230. 

Joseph, husband of Mary, 118, 
oA Ss a ee DAL i a 

Judaism, religion of, 15-19; 
struggle of Christianity 
against, 82, 87-88, 99-100, 244, 
250-251, 263-265, 273-276. 

Judaizers, 263, 273-276. 

Oras) 221,225. 245, 

Jude, Epistle of, 99; authorship 
and contents, 104-105. 

Judea, district of, 15. 

Jupiter, worshiped at Lystra, 
hd 

Justin, Martyr, 69, 107. 

Justus, 282. 


Kingdom of God, Jewish idea 
of, 20; how Jesus started it, 
187-1389; its place in his 
teaching, 152-153; his vision 
of, 180. 

Knox, John, 182, 


Lake, Kirsopp, quoted, 79. 

Lamb, Charles, quoted, 199. 

Language, the Greek, 24-26, 
229; Aramic, 24-25, 222, 229; 
Datin, 229. 

Lazarus, raising of, 208. 

Lebanon, Mount, 4. 

Leprosy, symbol of sin, 164. 

Lincoln, referred to, IX, 51, 95, 
115, 189, 238. 

Livingstone, David, 269. 

Locke, John, quoted, 274. 

Longfellow, quoted, 33. 

Lord, The coming of the, 91-92, 
282. 

Luke, author of the Third Gos- 
pel, joins Paul in the second 
missionary journey, 277; 290, 
294, 295. 


SUBJECTS 307 


Luke, Gospel of, relations to the 
other Gospels, 47-49; date of, 
54; authorship of, 69; char- 
acteristics of, 69-70, preface 
to, 70-72; contents of, 72-73. 

Luther, 108, 132. 

Lydda, 260. 

Lydia, 278. 

Lysias, captain of the Jerusa- 
lem police, 287. 

Lystray 272, 276, 


Macaulay, 78. 

Maccabaeus, Judas, 8, 17. 

Maccabees, 19. 

Macedonia, 277. 

Machaerus, Castle, 190, 

Magic, books of, burned at Ephe- 
Sus, 283-284. 

Malta, 292. 

Manuscripts, of the New Testa- 
ment, 108-109. 

Mark, Gospel of, relation to the 
other Gospels, 47-49; date of, 
54; authorship, 66-67; char- 
acteristics of, 67-68; lost end- 
ing of, 69. 

Mark, John, author of Second 
Gospel, with Paul on first 
missionary journey, PA 
turns back, 271; goes with 
Barnabas, 276; reconciled 
with Paul, 271-272, 295. 

Martha, sister of Mary, 208-210, 
238. 


Mary, mother of our Lord, 79, 
his Ll SOO Ate Oo ee 24) 
128, 141, 142, 154. 

Mary, sister of Martha, 208-211, 
238. 

Matthew, author of the First 
Gospel, 62. 


Matthias, 245. 

Mercury, worshiped at Lystra, 
272, 

Messiah, Jewish idea of, 20; 
Jesus announces himself as, 
Fowl 

Miletus, 286. 

Milton, 27. 

Ministers, injured by mercenary 


308 


spirit, 172; yet should be 
properly supported, 172. 

Miracles, their nature and his- 
toricity, 56-59; purpose of, 
142. 

Miracles, of Jesus, water turned 
into wine, 141-148; _ leper 
cleansed, 164; paralytic heal- 
ed, 164-166; cripple healed at 
pool of Bethesda, 167-169; 
centurion’s servant healed, 
178-180; storm stilled on Gal- 
ilee, 187-189; five thousand 
fed, 192-195; healing of the 
man born blind, 205-208; res- 
urrection of, 230-233. 7k 

Mischna, quoted, 16. 

Missions, foreign, 163, 269-270, 
278. 

Missions, home, 168. 

Mithraism, 382. 

Moab, 6. 

Moffatt, James, translation of 
Luke’s Preface, 71; his New 
Translation of the New Tes- 
tament, 110. 

Mohammedans, their conquests, 
8 


Moses, Assumption of, 105. 

Moses, law of, Pharisaic addi- 
tions to, 15-17. 

Moses, 194; at the transfigura- 
tion, 202. 

Mozart, 124. 

Myra, 290. 


Napoleon, 115. 

Nathanael, called to be a disci- 
ple of Jesus, 140. 

Nativity, Church of, 120. 

Nazareth, 5, childhood of Jesus 
in, 125-127; his first sermon 
in, 153-156. 

Neander, 78. 

Neapolis, 277. 

Nehemiah, 8. 

Nero, 54, 292, 293, 294, 296. 

Newton, 27, 35. 

Nicodemus, interview with Je- 
sus, 146-148; 230. 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


Olives, Mount of, 212, 237, 245. 

Onesimus, runaway slave, 90, 94. 

Ordinance, nature of, 1383, 170, 
197 ; baptism, 133; the Lord’s 
Supper, 217-220. 

Orontes, river, 266, 270. 

Outline, of events in the life of 
Jesus, 59-61; of the life and 
letters of Paul, 838-84. 


Palestine, the land of, 3-6; po- 
litical condition in time of 
Christ, 14-15. 

Pamphylia, 271. 

Paphos, 270, 271. 

Papias, quoted, 62, 66. 

Papini, Giovanni, quoted, 143- 
144. 

Papyri, 26. 

Parables, of Jesus, 184-187. 

Parthenon, The, IX, 281. 

Passover, feast, 17, 218. 

Paul, his Epistles, 80-98; his 
battle for the liberty of the 
Gospel from Judaic bondage, 
82, 87-88, 250; as a letter-wri- 
ter, thinker and theologian, 
82-83, 97; chronology of his 
life and letters, 83-84; wit- 
ness to the resurrection of 
Christ, 232; first appearance 
of, 252; his characteristics, 
256-257 ; conversion, 257-260; 
called from Tarsus to Antioch, 
268; his missionary journeys, 
269-296; first journey, 269- 
272; at Second Council in Je- 
rusalem, 273-276 ; second 
journey, 276-283; at Athens, 
280-281 ; at Corinth, 281; third 
journey, 288-286; at Ephesus, 
283-285; at Jerusalem and 
Cesarea, 286-289; voyage and 
shipwreck, 289-292; in Rome, 
292-296; contrasted with Je- 
sus, 256, 

Paulus, Sergius, 270-271. 

Peabody, Frances G., quoted, 
97-98. 

Pentecost, Day of, 245-248. 

Pentecost, feast. of, 17. 


INDEX OF 


Perea, district of, 15, 208. 

Perga, 271, 272. 

Pericles, 22. 

Persecution, in the early church, 
255, 260. 

Peter, the disciple, called to fol- 
low Jesus, 188, 156; his great 
confession, 199-200; his pre- 
sumption and rebuke, 200-201 ; 
at the transfiguration, 201- 
2038 ; 221, 222; on the morning 
of the resurrection, 231; 2382; 
232; preaches on the day of 


Pentecost, 247; in _ prison, 
248; at Samaria, 255; and 
Cornelius, 260-262; at First 


Council in Jerusalem, 263-265 ; 
at Second Council in Jerusa- 
lem, 274-275. 

Peter, I and II Epistles of, 99; 
authorship, dates and con- 
tents, 102-103, 108. 

Pharisees, Jewish religious par- 
ty, 19; in conflict with Jesus, 
164-166; 168-169, 195-198, 207- 
208. 

Phelps, William Lyon, quoted, 
296-297. 

Phidias, 22. 

Philemon, Epistle to, 80, 84; 
date, occasion and contents, 
94-95, 96, 294. 

Philip, the disciple, called to fol- 
low Jesus, 140; 215. 

Philip, the evangelist, in Sama- 
ria, 253-255; at Gaza, 255-256. 

Philippi, 89, 277-279. 

Philippians, Epistle to, 80, 84, 
date, occasion and contests, 
89-90; 294. 

Pilate, Pontius, Procurator of 
Judea, 15; character of, 224; 
at the trial of Jesus, 224-226. 

Pindar, 22. 

Plato, 22, 187, 

Polycarp, 73, 107. 

Pompey, captured Jerusalem, 
14. 

Prayer, the habit of Jesus, 162, 
221; nature of true, 175-176; 
of Jesus in Gethsemane, 222; 


SUBJECTS 309 


on the cross, 229; of Stephen, 
202. 
Prayer, The Lord’s, 175-178. 
Priscilla, 281. 
Ptolemy, Greek general, 23. 
Publius, 292. 


Quelle, meaning of, 49; 71. 


Ramsay, Sir, W. M., 87, 272. 

Raphael, 124. 

Reformation, The, 267. 

Renan, quoted, 199. 

Repentance, meaning of, 132; 
message of John the Baptist, 
132; of Jesus, 152-153; on the 
day of Pentecost, 247. 

Resurrection, of Jesus, 52; 280- 
233. 

Revelation, Book of, 34; nature, 
authorship and date of, 105- 
106, 108. 

Revival, Wesleyan, 267. 

Robertson, A. T., quoted, 74; 
referred to, 118. 

Romanes, quoted, 11. 

Romans, Epistle to, 80, 84, date, 
occasion and contents, 84-85, 
96, 286. 

Rome, VIII, 30, 84, 100, 244, 265, 
266, 289, 292-296. 

Rubicon, The, 277. 


Sabbath, Pharisaiec restrictions 
on, 16; how Jesus used it, 154, 
158-161 ; conflict of Jesus with 
Pharisees over, 168-169, 207. 

Sacrifices, Jewish, 15. 

Sadducees, Jewish 
party, 19, 228. 

Salome, daughter of Herodias, 
191-192. 

Samaria, district of, 14; town 
of, 5, 149; conversation of Je- 
sus with woman of, 148-150; 
the gospel in, 253-255, 

Samson, 194. 

Sanhedrin, supreme court of the 
Jews, 18; in the trial of Je- 
sus, 223-224. 

Sapphira, 249, 


religious 


310 INDEX OF 


Schaff, Philip, quoted, 78-79. 

School, the Jewish common, 18- 
19. 

Sea, Dead, 4. 

Seleucia, 270. 

Seleucus, Greek general, 23. 

Septuagint, 25, 109. 


Shakespeare, referred to, IX, 
124, 199; quoted, 6. 
Sidon, 198, 


Silas, goes with Paul on his sec- 
ond missionary journey, 276- 
279; 280, 282. 

Simon, the soreerer, 254. 

Simon, the tanner, 260. 

Simpson, James Y., quoted; 233. 

Sinai, Mount, 7, 108, 201. 

Slavery, Paul’s treatment of, 94- 
95; Roman, 178. 

Smith, Sydney, quoted, 202. 

Socrates, 22. 

Spirit, The Holy, power of, at 
Pentecost, 246-247. 

Stalker, James, 60, 

Stephanus, Robertus, 109. 

Stephen, 202; appointed deacon, 
249, began the battle for 
Christian liberty from Mo- 
Saic law, 250-251; his martyr- 
dom, 251-252. 

Stevens and Burton, their Har- 
mony of the Gospels, referred 
to, 47, 48, 50. 

Sunday, Palm, 212. 

Synagogue, the worship in, 18- 
19; the Jewish common school, 
18. 

Syrians, 8. 


Tabernacles, feast of, 17, 245. 

Tarsus, 268-269. 

Tatian, his Diatessaron, 108. 

Temple, The, daily service in, 
15; Christ’s first cleansing of, 
143-145. 

Temptation, of Jesus, 132-187. 

Tennyson, 27, 125. 

Testament, New, best book in 
the world, IX; highly compo- 
site, human aud divine; rooted 
in the Old, 12-14; Hebrew 


SUBJECTS 


contributions to, 1-21; Greek 
contributions to, 26-28; Roman 
contributions to, 338-34; books 
of, 41; order of its books, 48; 
eanon of, 107-108; manu- 
seripts of, 108-109; transla- 
tions of, 109-111; character- 
istics and value of, 296-297. 

Testament, The Old, background 
of the New, 11-14; quoted in 
the New, 13; translated into 
Greek, 25; canon of, 108; 
translations of, 109-111. 

Testament, Hxpositor’s Greek, 
quoted, 638-64, 232. 

Theology, new, in the teaching 
of Jesus, 160-161; 251, 265. 
Thessalonians, I and II Epistles 
to, 80, 84, dates, occasions and 

contents, 90-92, 282, 

Thessalonica, 90-91, 282. 

Thomas, the disciple, 231. 

Tiber, river, 266. 

Time, Fulness of, 35-36. 

Timothy, convert of Paul, 276- 
277, 280, 282, 295. 

Timothy, I and II Epistles to, 
81, 84, 96; dates, occasions 
and contents, 92-94; 295. 

Titus, Epistle to, 81, 84, date, 
occasion and contents, 94; 
295. 

Tower, The Black, 181, 190. 

Tradition, its place in religion, 
197-198. 

Traditions, Jewish, 16-17; con- 
flict of Jesus with Pharisees 
over, 195-197. 

Transfiguration, The, 201-204. 

Trial, of Jesus, 223-226; of Ste- 
phen, 250-252. 

Troas, 89, 277, 295. 

Twelve, The, choosing and mis- 
sion of, 169-172. 

Tychicus, 90. 

Tyndale, William, 110, 

Tyrannus, 283. 

Tyre, 198. 


Venus, 281. 
Versions, of the Bible, Bede’s, 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


110; Wrycliffe’s, 110; Tyn- 
dale’s, 110; Coverdale’s, 110; 
the Bishops’, Reims and 


Douai, 110; Authorized, 110; 
Revised, 110; American Stand- 
ard, 110; Moffatt’s, of the 
New Testament, 110. 

Vinci, Leonardo da, 124. 


Wade, Dr. G. W., quoted, 233. 

War, The Great, 8. 

Washington, George, referred to, 
115, 238. 

Webster, Daniel, 202. 


311 


Westcott, Dr. B. F., quoted, 110. 

Whittier, quoted, 297. 

Worship, Emperor, 382. 

Worship, true nature of, 150- 
151, 239. 

Wycliffe, 110. 


Zacchaeus, 208. 

Zacharias, 119. 

Zealots, Jewish party, 20. 

Zebedee, father of James and 
John, 188. 

Zionist, Movement, 5, 





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